They reside permanently away from the United States,
they contribute nothing to its revenues, they avoid the duties of
its citizenship, and they only make themselves known by a claim of
protection. I have directed the diplomatic and consular officers of the
United States to scrutinize carefully all such claims for protection.
The citizen of the United States, whether native or adopted, who
discharges his duty to his country, is entitled to its complete
protection. While I have a voice in the direction of affairs I shall not
consent to imperil this sacred right by conferring it upon fictitious or
fraudulent claimants.
On the accession of the present Administration it was found that the
minister for North Germany had made propositions for the negotiation
of a convention for the protection of emigrant passengers, to which no
response had been given. It was concluded that to be effectual all the
maritime powers engaged in the trade should join in such a measure.
Invitations have been extended to the cabinets of London, Paris,
Florence, Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Copenhagen, and Stockholm to
empower their representatives at Washington to simultaneously enter
into negotiations and to conclude with the United States conventions
identical in form, making uniform regulations as to the construction of
the parts of vessels to be devoted to the use of emigrant passengers, as
to the quality and quantity of food, as to the medical treatment of the
sick, and as to the rules to be observed during the voyage, in order
to secure ventilation, to promote health, to prevent intrusion, and to
protect the females; and providing for the establishment of tribunals in
the several countries for enforcing such regulations by summary process.
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