laws now in existence and the recommendation and support of such new
statutes as may be necessary to carry it into effect.

Our naturalization and immigration laws should be further improved to
the constant promotion of a safer, a better, and a higher citizenship.
A grave peril to the Republic would be a citizenship too ignorant to
understand or too vicious to appreciate the great value and beneficence
of our institutions and laws, and against all who come here to make war
upon them our gates must be promptly and tightly closed. Nor must we be
unmindful of the need of improvement among our own citizens, but with
the zeal of our forefathers encourage the spread of knowledge and free
education. Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we shall attain
that high destiny as the foremost of the enlightened nations of the
world which, under Providence, we ought to achieve.

Reforms in the civil service must go on; but the changes should be real
and genuine, not perfunctory, or prompted by a zeal in behalf of any
party simply because it happens to be in power. As a member of Congress
I voted and spoke in favor of the present law, and I shall attempt its
enforcement in the spirit in which it was enacted. The purpose in view
was to secure the most efficient service of the best men who would
accept appointment under the Government, retaining faithful and devoted
public servants in office, but shielding none, under the authority of
any rule or custom, who are inefficient, incompetent, or unworthy. The
best interests of the country demand this, and the people heartily
approve the law wherever and whenever it has been thus administrated.

Congress should give prompt attention to the restoration of our
American merchant marine, once the pride of the seas in all the great
ocean highways of commerce. To my mind, few more important subjects so