1884
President Arthur Proclaims Power to Impose Quarantine
on Immigrants
On this day in 1884, President Chester Arthur
issues a proclamation that grants him and the federal government the power to
quarantine persons entering the United States through its ports of entry to
avoid the spread of “pestilence.” Although the proclamation used the word
pestilence several times, it did not mention the specific name of the dreaded
disease from which Arthur was trying to protect the nation: tuberculosis.
Although individual states usually maintained
their own quarantine laws, Arthur saw the need to broaden the federal
government’s powers to intervene in a national health crisis. Arthur served as
president during an economic depression, when the nation was already in a state
of anxiety and fearful of a resurgence in immigration from Europe and Asia,
where tuberculosis was epidemic. He advised cities along the coasts to “resist
the power of the disease and to mitigate its severity.” Without elaborating,
Arthur was authorizing people to report to the federal government persons
suspected of carrying highly contagious diseases.
Since the country’s inception, several
presidents have had to impose quarantine regulations. George Washington signed
the first quarantine act in 1799 at a time when variations of the plague and
smallpox still posed deadly threats. Foreign ships deemed in “insanitary [sic]
conditions” could be seized by federal officers and the passengers placed in
quarantine at hospitals.
In 1918, 657,000 Americans were killed when a
deadly worldwide pandemic called the “Spanish Flu” swept through the nation.
Some historical accounts claim that President Woodrow Wilson contracted this
flu while in Paris for the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919,
although it is uncertain which strain of flu virus he had.
During his first term, President George W.
Bush added Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China
and threatened to spread like wildfire, to the list of diseases for which
government quarantine procedures could be implemented. Currently, diseases
caused by biological weapons, such as anthrax, or the deadly influenza virus
carried by poultry and other birds pose an additional danger to the United
States.