They were afraid of large numbers of Jews coming in from (in the case of the St. Louis) Germany. 900 people is a lot of people but it would only be the tip of the iceberg if people were allowed to cross the Atlantic and go into the United States. There was a quota of how many people could come in and the US wanted to keep to the quota system.
The United States (at the time of the St. Louis sailing) was neutral, so they also didn't want to endanger that neutrality.
Answer:
I think it's if the petition gets enough signatures then the White House recognizes it. Not 100% sure, though.
This is Thomas Jefferson, who was a Republican leader when the party system took hold. He went on to become president of the United States and considered Alexander Hamilton to be a political rival.
It led for the citizens of each state to decide whether or not their state would be a free or slave state. Although it did backfire with events such as bleeding Kansas
Nicholas II or Nikolai II (Russian: Николай II Алекса́ндрович, tr. Nikolai II Aleksandrovich; 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918), known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer in the Russian Orthodox Church, was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917.
