President Cleveland Vetoes a Law Restricting Immigration
Immigration and Migration
In 1897 President Grover Cleveland vetoed legislation requiring a literacy test for would-be immigrants proposed by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, declaring, "I cannot believe that we would be protected against these [alleged evils of unrestricted immigration] by limiting immigration to those who can read and write in any language twenty-five words..." In his response to Congress, excerpted below, Cleveland outlined and refuted some of the arguments of those who favored restrictions on turn-of-the-century immigration. Twenty years after Cleveland's veto, a literacy requirement would be included as part of the Immigration Act of 1917.
Grover Cleveland
John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, <em>The American Presidency Project</em>, University of California, Santa Barbara, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=70845.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1897
1622
English
Government Document
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A Virginian Statesman Proposes Amendments to the Constitution
Richard Henry Lee was a Virginia statesman best known for proposing the motion calling for independence from Britain during the Second Continental Congress. In this letter to fellow Virginian and anti-Federalist George Mason, Lee sets out to correct what the Anti-Federalists found to be the most glaring flaw with the Constitution adopted by the Philadelphia Convention in 1787: its lack of a specific enumeration of individual rights. Supporters of the Constitution initially argued that such a Bill of Rights was unnecessary, since the document was not intended to give the federal government powers not specifically spelled out. But Anti-Federalists like Lee were insistent, and over 200 proposals were eventually submitted from around the country. Lee proposes a number of amendments, several of which were incorporated into the first ten amendments to the Constitution (collectively known as the Bill of Rights), including those safeguarding freedom of religion and the right to a trial by jury, and prohibiting excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.
Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee, "Letter to George Mason," in Merrill Jensen, ed., <em>Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution</em>, (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976), 65-66.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1787
English
Diary/Letter
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
A Citizen Sees Socialism and Communism in the New Deal (with text supports)
This letter to Senator Robert F. Wagner describes the author's fears that New Deal policies will lead the nation on the path to socialism, communism, or fascism. This version includes text supports such as definitions.
Anonymous
McElvaine, Robert S., ed., <em>Down & Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man"</em>, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 150.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1934
1450, 1483
English
Diary/Letter
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
A New York Farmer Outlines His Opposition to the Constitution
The ratification of the United States Constitution was the subject of intense discussion, debate, and dissent during the period 1787-1789. Among those opposed to ratification were many small farmers in the North. As this letter written by "A Countryman from Dutchess County [upstate New York]" indicates, Anti-Federalists were concerned about provisions for the establishment of a "standing army" and the absence of a bill of rights. For many northerners, the Constitution's protection of slavery was another bone of contention. These issues were so vexing that some, like the author of this letter, went so far as to suggest that "we should have been much happier... in our old connexion with Great-Britain."
Anonymous
Herbert J. Storing, ed., <em>The Complete Anti-Federalist</em>, vol. 6 (University of Chicago Press, 1981), 60-63.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1788
English
Diary/Letter
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
James Madison Considers the Problems of a New Democracy
The United States Constitution, though ultimately ratified unanimously by all thirteen states, was the subject of intense discussion, debate, and dissent during the period 1787-1789. James Madison, a Virginia patriot and later the fourth president of the United States, was known as the principal author of the Federalist Papers, a collection of articles advocating ratification of the new Constitution. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson written on October 24, 1787, Madison discusses the political and philosophical ramifications of the document, touching on such topics as the inherent inequalities stemming from differences that arise in a society and the difficulty of safeguarding the rights of the minority in a majority-ruled system of government.
James Madison
James Madison, "James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 24, 1787," James Madison Papers, Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mjm.03_0069_0071; from Michael Kammen, ed., <em>The Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History</em> (Penguin Books, 1986), 71-73.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1787
English
Diary/Letter
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
Abigail Adams Reminds John Adams to "Remember the ladies"
Gender and Sexuality
In this famous letter, Abigail Adams shares wartime news and opinions with her husband. Already planning for the war's successful conclusion, she admonishes him to consider the rights of women when developing laws for a newly independent nation.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams, "Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776," letter, in <em>Adams Family Correspondence</em>, eds. L.H. Butterfield et al. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963), vol 1: 369-371; from Massachusetts Historical Society, <em>Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive</em>, http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1776
676
English
Diary/Letter
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
A Citizen Claims the New Deal is a Path Towards Socialism
This 1934 letter to Senator Robert F. Wagner protests President Roosevelt's New Deal policies. The writer argues for stimulating private business to create employment, and against increasing the role of the federal government. Since the 19th century, some Americans had feared that socialism or communism would upset America's capitalist system and threaten American liberty. These fears had been especially strong since the Red Scare following World War I. The rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Tojo in the 1920s and 1930s added new worries about the threat of fascism. This letter was reproduced with all of the author's original spelling, syntax, and grammar.
Anonymous
Robert S. McElvaine, ed., <em>Down & Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man"</em> (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 150-1.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1934
English
Diary/Letter
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
A Fight Breaks Out Among Early Congressmen
The early Congress was an occasionally volatile experiment in Democracy, as this somewhat crude 1798 cartoon demonstrates. On February 15 of that year, an insult uttered by Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut directed to Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont provoked a violent row on the floor of Congress Hall in Philadelphia. The Representatives' resort to weaponry—a cane in the case of Griswold and a pair of fire tongs for Lyon—prompted the satirical verses which appear below the illustration: "He in a trice struck Lyon thrice/Upon his head, enrag'd sir/Who seiz'd the tongs to ease his wrongs/And Griswold thus engag'd, sir."
Unknown
"Congressional Pugilists," etching, Philadelphia, 1798; from Library of Congresss, American Memory, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwpugilr.html.<br />
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1798
English
Cartoon
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
Massachusetts Anti-Federalists Oppose the Three-Fifths Compromise
The ratification of the United States Constitution was the subject of intense debate between 1787 and 1789. One particularly controversial issue was the Three Fifths Compromise, which settled how enslaved people would be counted for purposes of representation and taxation. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia had agreed that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for representation purposes, thus giving southern states greater representation in the House while remaining exempt from paying taxes on the other two-fifths of the slave population. Although the authors of this article from 1788 focus on the second aspect of the Compromise, it was the issue of representation in Congress that proved to have far greater consequences. Southern states gained disproportionate power in determining issues (particularly those related to slavery) while denying the vote to vast segments of their populations.
Consider Arms, Malachi Maynard, Samuel Field
Herbert J. Storing, ed., <em>The Complete Anti-Federalist</em>, vol. 6 (University of Chicago Press, 1981), 256.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1788
English
Article/Essay
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)