Calvin Coolidge & the Republican Party
Coolidge was a staunch supporter of anti-immigration policies. He carried an “America first” rhetoric through his speeches. While he was careful not to criminalize immigrants, he believed that the screening process should be thorough to select immigrants that would assimilate.
"We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and Government will fail unless America be kept American. " – Coolidge's acceptance speech for the Republican Party nomination, 1924 [1\ |
"American institutions rest solely on good citizenship... New Arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship.... Our present economic and social conditions warrant a limitation.... |
Along the same lines, both Republican platforms of ‘20 and ‘24 focused on the integration of immigrants. They ensured that the assimilation process would be able to keep up with the number of immigrants coming in.
on immigration
"The immigration policy of the U. S. should be such as to insure that the number of foreigners in the country at any one time shall not exceed that which can be assimilated with reasonable rapidity, and to favor immigrants whose standards are similar to ours.... and more effective inspection applied as near the source of immigration as possible"
on naturalization, free speech
"No alien should become a citizen until he has become genuinely American... [and\ no man may advocate resistance to the law, and no man may advocate violent overthrow"
– The 1920 Republican Party Platform [3\