St. Thomas Law Review
Article Title
Theory and Reality in Statutory Interpretation
Abstract
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the United States was on the verge of becoming the richest and most powerful nation on earth. The blessings of a century's remarkable flowering were not unmixed, however. The contradiction at the heart of capitalism was proving increasingly problematic- its freeing of the human spirit on the one hand; its greed, acquisitiveness, and insatiable need for raw materials, labor, and new and everexpanding markets on the other. The nation would soon choose the path of imperialism. That fateful decision, turning finally on a single vote in the Senate, would represent for many a profound betrayal of what America its idea, its spirit-was all about. And already the fifty-odd million people who populated this country in the 1880s, all ironically immigrants themselves or of immigrant stock, were beginning to ponder just how open America's fabled "golden door" should be and, more importantly, who should be allowed to pass through it.