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| Immigration Policy |
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The first consideration in
immigration is the welfare of the receiving nation. In a new government based on
principles unfamiliar to the rest of the world and resting on the sentiments of the people
themselves, the influx of a large number of new immigrants unaccustomed to the government
of a free society could be detrimental to that society. Immigration, therefore, must be
approached carefully and cautiously.
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"I hold the right of
expatriation to be inherent in every man by the laws of nature, and incapable of being
rightfully taken from him even by the united will of every other person in the nation. If
the laws have provided no particular mode by which the right of expatriation may be
exercised, the individual may do it by any effectual and unequivocal act or
declaration." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1806. FE 8:458
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"Expatriation [is] a natural
right, and acted on as such by all nations in all ages." --Thomas Jefferson:
Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:12
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"Our ancestors... possessed
a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance,
not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of there
establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations as, to them, shall seem most
likely to promote public happiness." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America,
1774. ME 1:185, Papers 1:121
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The Obligation to Provide
Asylum
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"Shall we refuse the unhappy
fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to
our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe?
The Constitution, indeed, has wisely provided that for admission to certain offices of
important trust a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character and design.
But might not the general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated
to every one manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes
permanently with us?" --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:338
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"It [has] been the wise
policy of these states to extend the protection of their laws to all those who should
settle among them of whatever nation or religion they might be and to admit them to a
participation of the benefits of civil and religious freedom, and... the benevolence of
this practice as well as its salutary effects [has] rendered it worthy of being continued
in future times." --Thomas Jefferson: Proclamation, 1781. Papers 4:505
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"America is now, I think,
the only country of tranquility and should be the asylum of all those who wish to avoid
the scenes which have crushed our friends in [other lands]." --Thomas Jefferson to
Mrs. Church, 1793. FE 6:289
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"[We wish] but to consecrate
a sanctuary for those whom the misrule of Europe may compel to seek happiness in other
climes. This refuge, once known, will produce reaction on the happiness even of those who
remain there by warning their task-masters that when the evils of Egyptian oppression
become heavier than those of the abandonment of country, another Canaan is open where
their subjects will be received as brothers and secured against like oppressions by a
participation in the right of self-government." --Thomas Jefferson to George Flower,
1817. ME 15:141
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"Born in other countries,
yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your
right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established
rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will
certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular." --Thomas Jefferson
to Hugh White, 1801. ME 10:258
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Too Rapid Growth by
Immigration
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"[Is] rapid population
[growth] by as great importations of foreigners as possible... founded in good policy?...
They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their
early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded
licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle
were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with
their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their number, they
will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias
its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass... If they come
of themselves, they are entitled to all the rights of citizenship: but I doubt the
expediency of inviting them by extraordinary encouragements." --Thomas Jefferson:
Notes on Virginia Q.VIII, 1782. ME 2:118
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"I mean not that these
doubts should be extended to the importation of useful artificers. The policy of that
measure depends on very different considerations. Spare no expense in obtaining them. They
will after a while go to the plough and the hoe; but in the meantime, they will teach us
something we do not know." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.VIII, 1782. ME
2:121
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"A first question is,
whether it is desirable for us to receive at present the dissolute and demoralized
handicraftsmen of the old cities of Europe? A second and more difficult one is, when even
good handicraftsmen arrive here, is it better for them to set up their trade, or go to the
culture of the earth? Whether their labor in their trade is worth more than their labor on
the soil, increased by the creative energies of the earth?" --Thomas Jefferson to J.
Lithgow, 1805. ME 11:56
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"Although as to other
foreigners it is thought better to discourage their settling together in large masses,
wherein, as in our German settlements, they preserve for a long time their own languages,
habits, and principles of government, and that they should distribute themselves sparsely
among the natives for quicker amalgamation, yet English emigrants are without this
inconvenience. They differ from us little but in their principles of government, and most
of those (merchants excepted) who come here, are sufficiently disposed to adopt
ours." --Thomas Jefferson to George Flower, 1817. ME 15:140
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| ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition. |
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