[Solicitor General and Acting U.S. Attorney General Henry M. Hoyt Officially Opines on Medical Issues of Immigration Law and an Immigration Case before the Supreme Court; with Additional Letter]

Department of Justice. Washington, D.C. 1906 to 1907. Three carbon letters, signed. [1], [5], [1]pages, respectively. Foxing; else very good.

Three letters, all incoming to Philadelphia attorney J. Whitaker Thompson, United States attorney. The bulk of the material is from Henry Martyn Hoyt, Jr. (1856-1910) who served as United States Solicitor General from 1903 to 1909.

The best content is a 5-page letter focusing on legal issues concerning illegal aliens and contagious diseases. The letter concerns a legal appeal in the case of an alien, the ailing immigrant Hagop Cachigian. Solicitor General Hoyt, now Acting U.S. Attorney General, outlines the law on denial of admission to the United States on the ground of mental or physical disability, or, as in the present case, for having a contagious disease:

"It is contended that the certificate of the examining surgeon should have stated that the disease could have been detected by competent medical examination at the time of embarkation. Such a proposition is not supported by the statute. It is true that section 9 of the act of March 3, 1903, supra, provides for a penalty by the steamship company for bringing aliens to this country afflicted with a dangerous contagious disease where it appears that such disease might have been discovered by competent medical examination at the time of embarkation, but this has no application to the requirements which must be met by the alien when seeking admission to the country. Ordinarily the only question as to him is, whether at the time of his application for admission he is afflicted with a dangerous contagious disease....it must be established by the alien that his disease was contracted on board ship...the right of the alien to land must further depend upon whether the disease is "easily curable," and also whether the alien can be permitted to land "without danger to other persons." (February 27, 1907, pp3-4)"

The conclusion of the letter concerns Cachigian's children, Hoyt making it clear that that question has already been determind by the U.S. Supreme Court in Charles Zartarian v. United States.

Another letter here, by a different Acting Attorney General, relate to a man, possibly a relative of Hagop Cachigian, who was ordered to be deported for an eye infection. The third letter, by Solicitor General Hoyt refers to "...the case of Taylor v. The United States, which case involves the construction of section 18 of the Immigration Act of 1903 now in the Supreme Court of the United States."