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Statement by the President on the Republican Position on Immigration: Presidential Paper Historical Seriesby President Harry S Truman: 1945-1953
Statement by the President on the Republican Position on
Immigration CERTAIN Republican leaders have been deliberately
distorting my statement of October 17 concerning the position
of the Republican Party and the position of most of its
representatives in Congress on our immigration laws. Perhaps
what is needed now is a calm clarification of the
situation. Now, what does the record show; what precisely did I say
last Friday? I repeat the exact words I used: "Among those who voted for the McCarran bill and to
override my veto, was the Republican candidate for Vice
President. "Among the other Republicans were Senators Jenner and
McCarthy. Together with ex-Senator Revercomb, the champion of
the anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish provisions of the original DP
bill, these men have been embraced by the Republican candidate
for President. "The Republican candidate for the Presidency cannot escape
responsibility for his endorsements. He has had an attack of
moral blindness, for today, he is willing to accept the very
practices that identified the so-called 'master race' although
he took a leading part in liberating Europe from their
domination." I do not withdraw a word of that statement. But the
Republicans and a few others whom they were able to persuade
to help them, chose to distort the simple meaning of my words
as a charge that the Republican presidential candidate is
anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish. I said no such thing, and
indeed meant no such thing; and any fair person who reads what
in fact I did say, must be as shocked as I am by the
absurdities in the press of the last few days. Certainly, people remember that I have made clear that
Senator McCarran, the principal sponsor of discriminatory
immigration legislation, "is not my kind of Democrat."
Contrast that with the Republican candidate's willingness and
hearty endorsement of Senators Jenner, McCarthy, and
Revercomb. The first two, along with Senator Nixon and most
Republicans, voted to override any veto of the McCarran bill,
which is recognized everywhere as discriminatory. Senator
Revercomb, it will not be forgotten, championed the notorious
anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish provisions of the original
displaced persons bill. This is what I said, and these are the
facts which nobody has yet denied. What all of this furor adds up to is that the Republicans
in their eagerness to get votes are trying to find in my
statement of fact something that is not there. I cannot
tolerate this. If the Republican candidate sees fit to endorse
such well-known supporters of discriminatory legislation, if
he is willing to campaign on a platform that is utterly silent
on the subject of amending that legislation, and if he wants
people to take seriously his belated acknowledgment, just the
other day, that the McCarran Act needs radical amendments, he
must then explain to 'the public whether he accepts the
practices of the men he supports or whether, by some political
disclaimer, he disassociates himself from their practices. The
practices of those Senators--the practices of the big lie and
of character assassination--are identified with the so-called
"master race" theory and no amount of distortion can change
that fact. I know that the Republican candidate for President
is neither anti-Jewish nor anti-Catholic, but why does he give
his endorsement to such men?
That is what I condemned last Friday and this is what I
condemn today.
Reprinted with permission from John Wolley and Gerhard Peters of the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara at the American Presidency Project.
This is part of the presidential paper historical series featuring past presidential public papers related to immigration law. The papers of our past Presidents show the impact of immigration law in American history. We thank the efforts of the American Presidency Project who have gathered these important archival documents.
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