The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-01-22

/ A law of NATURALIZATION was passed BY Viz
gina during The revolution for the benefit d
I La Fayette but he did not accept Of the office
OF course be returned to France subject O.
Louis XVI
1t may be asked, how did the Dutch of this
State become citizens We answer, probably
by treaty with Holland, on its cessien. Blu
the colony law of naturalization, which wa,
passed soon after, would make them SUCH (Ses
Rivised Statutes Appendix No. 81
4 4thy An Indian living in the jurisdiction O
the u s. is not citizen, without special law
They were born in the country. The State o.
New York claims sovereign and criminal juris
diction over them-(see X. Statutes) They
have fought in many Of our battles; they are
free, and We're the original pfoprietors of the
soils but still they are not citizens, for the rea
son that there is no reasonable compact or law
to make them so. And so it was decided by
the Court of Errors in lS23--(see Goodell Us
Jackson, 20 Johnson's Rep, $685. The same
decision was made in the same year by the Su,
preme Court of the u. SIS Wheaton, John
son u.s. Mnlntosh)
| The fact that Congress passed laws Of natur-
alization in l843 and 46 for the Brother Town
and Stockbridge indians at Green Bay, which
made them citizens on their application, fully
settles this question.
| 5ihly. A negro, bond or free, is not citizen
of the U. s. BY virtue Of what law have free
negroes become so Certainly not by the laws
of inheritance, for the reason that they have no
Unbeatable blood No State or colony made
them such previous to the adoption of the Con.
stitution Of the U. S. The colony naturaliza.
ton law Of New York excluded them, because
they did not emigrate from Christian country
--(see r. s., Appendix, No.6)
| There is no law of Congress that makes them
citizens. The naturalization laws of 1890, 1895
and 1902, prohibit their becoming So by re-
strctng the privilege to Stree white persons =
The common law would avail hem nothing, as
the Constitution has not adopted it in the abb
sence of Congressional laws. 1t has been fire..
quently decided by the Supreme Court of the u.
| s. that il was not valid. fSee Kent Com vol |,
section % But this is not all Thus far Judi
cial decisions are decidedly against them Judges
Daggatt Of Connecticut, Bullock of Kentucky,
Krum of Missouri, and Chief Justice Gibson of
Pennsylvania, have decided that they were not
citizens, within the meaning of the Constitution
A general impression prevails thata slave is not
a citizen, but that the instant he is Free he be-
comes SO. This is the greatest fallacy that ever
entered the head of man. Freedom is not essen
tial to citizenship. 1t is a political right. A
political right is incidental to a national right.
Take away this right, and he still remains cit
izen. The inmates of States prison are as
much citizens as they ever were. The pardoning
power can do no more than restore political
rights.
Is Liberia an American colony Are the fu-
gitive slaves in Canada American citizens Are
free blacks, emancipated in 1928 in the State of
New York. citizens If so, the State has the
power of passing naturalization laws which we
had supposed belonged exclusively to Congress-
(Kent, vol. l, p 397, sec. XXX Why did the
emancipation law of 1917 grant them the priv.
lege of holding real estate, if they were to be
regarded as citizens? If free negroes are eiti-
zens, the slaves of the South are equally so, the
boorhs of Russia are as much subjects as Prince
Orlondoff
To 90 to the coast of Africa and kidnap me-
gro, and make him slave here, and then by the
gaining of his freedom, either by virtue of his
own locomotive powers, or by emancipation, is,
to say the least, queer way Gin this "Giam
Nation") of manufacturing citizens of the United
States. y!
Bnt has been urged that they have been al
lowed the privilege of noting at our elections
True; but they bad overlooked the fact that this
IS nothing more than the exercise OF political
privilege, and that political privilege cannot con.
fer national right. In the State of Illinois all
aliens are allowed this privilege on six months
residence; but who ever dreamed that this made
them citizens of the United States
Neither are they considered as subjects of G.
B. by Parliamentary definition of British
subject (see statute "a Geo. Sd, CHI IS, or Holt
on navigation laws of &. b Still, they are
allowed many political rights since their eman-
cipation in the West Indies, but this does not
make them British subjects-but they are re.
garded as denizens, dependents, or what VatteI
calls perpetual inhabitants, (see Vattel B. T.
oh. 10, section 2l3) How far Great Britain
and the United States would be under obligation,
on the score of justice and humanity, to protect
beyond their jurisdiction, as they have no gov,
eminent oftheir own, We will consider hereafter.
EUREKA.