Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1845-01-15

! NATURALIZATION AND THE RIGHT O.
TrNG,--Tho New York correspondent
of the National Inteligencer--a whig--
in one of his recent letters, speaks of III,
views of our correspondent "Sarach" Of
these subjects, as having been "belore up
held, and, in one instance, by distinguish
ed whig."
The position, by whomsoever taken o.
upheld, is no doubt sound, that Congress
has no power to control the qualification.
of voters in the States, through its natura
lizaton laws, except in so far as the States
choose 10 make citizenship qualification
for voting 1t is position which rest,
upon the clear provisions OF the constitu.
ton of the United States; and the position
of its advocates, as regards the two par.
ties, cannot alter its plain common sense.
But the writer in question goes on tc
assail the position, indirectly to be sure
but unequiyocally, by an effort to bring il
to the test Of rcdatio dd abSurdum.--
He says:
elf sound, it shows the utter futilty Of
any attempt to amend the naturalization
laws by any action of Congress. 1t shows
in fact, that the clause in the federal con
stitution which authorizes Congress to es-
tabish a uniform rule of naturalization is
not of any binding efficacy as regards the
States, and is, therefore, impertinent and
supert2uous. IF it depends upon State &C
ton alone to fix the qualifications Of vo.
tiers, what possible use or potency can
there be in federal legislation upon the
subject would like to know what the
advocates of this principle suppose that
the trainers of the constitution meant by
the term naturalization"
This exhibits very hasty glance at
the subject, and the conclusions based up.
on it could scarcely fail to be wrong, The
writer errs in suPposing, to begin with,
that the sole object of uniform naturaliza-
ton laws was to establish uniform qualif
cations for voting in the several States
So far from that being the sole object, it
does not appear to have been even one Of
the objects Of the trainers of the consti-
tuition. For the constitution expressly
leaves the subject Of the qualifications of
voters to the several States, to be regulat.
ed as they, through their constitutions and
laws, should see fit. And hence it is that
these qualifications vary essentially in the
States-some requiring citizenship as a
sine qua non, and others not.
A glance at the qualification of men,
bers Of Congress and senators of the U.
States, would have given the writer an in.
sight into one of the reasons why Con-
gress was authorized to pass uniform nat.
uralizatiOn laws. There is at least one
aspect in which such laws are neither
"imperinent' nor superhuous;" but abso.
lutely essential to carry out the provisions
of the constitution. For instance: the
constitution requires that members of Con
gress shall have been, among other things,
seven years citizens Of iha United States,
and that senator's shall have been nine
years citizens, &c,
OF course these provisions would be in
a measure nugntory, il Congress had not
the power, and had not exercised il, of
prescribing the time and the mode of OBJ.
tanning naturalization or citizenship; and
if each State had the power to prescribe
its own period of probation. Here Is rea.
son enough, without looking further, for
the provision alluded to, authorizing Con-
gress to pass Uniform naturalization laws.
And here, too, will be found the secret of
the fact that the qualifications of voters
for members of Congress, and for presi.
dental electors, were left to the States. -
For so long as none but citizens of seven
years standing can be members Of the
House of Representatives, and none but a
native citizen can be President of the u.
States, of what importance is or was it
who the States might authorize to vote for
them?
But we have already extended this arti.
Gle further than we designed, or than is
necessary. The whole question lies in
NUTSHELL Albany Argus.
MISSISSIPPI JUsTIcE.--We invite the at
tention of our brethren of the press, mem
bers of the bar, and officers, to the fact,
that there is, at present, no compen-