Mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado Co., Cal.) 1854-1860, 1859-08-27
The Expatriation Question.


WAsnISGToS, July 1Sth.-AttOrncy-G Cen
cral Black has, in compliance with the request
of the President Of the United States, render
cd an opinion in the case of Christian Ernst,
a native Of Hanover, and who cmigratcd to this
country in 1881, when he was about nineteen
years of age.
This subject was recently made the basis
Of communication to our minister at Berlin,
who was instructed to demand tho release oi
Mr.. Ernst.
1t appears That he was naturalizcd last Feb.
ruary, and in March, after procuring Il regular
passport, he went back to Hanover on a tenn.
porary visit. lie had been in the village
where he was born, about three weeks, when
he was arrested. carried to the nearest military
station, forced into the lIanoverian army, and
there he is at the present time, unable to re-
turn home to his family and business, but
compelled against his will to perform military
service.
The Attorney General says that it is case
which makes it necessary for the Government
of the United States to interfere promptly and
tlecisivcly, or acknowledge that We have no
power to protect naturalized citizens when
they return to their native country, under
any circumstances whatever. What YOU will
own country, rs controlled and modified by
the law of nations. the Constitution of the
United States, and the acts Of Congress.
The natural right of every free person who
owes no debts, and is not guilty of any crime,
(aith, and for an honest purpose-the privil.
cgc Of throwing of his natural allegiance and
substituting another allegiance in its place
VS,R stNn oc
is incontcStiblC. know that the common
law of England denies it, that the judicial de-
cisions of that country arc opposed to it, and
that some of our own courts, misled by British
authority, have expressed Ohough not very
decisivelyl the same opinion. But all this is
very far from settling the question. The mu-
nicipal code Of England is not one of the sour
ccS from which We derive our knowledge of
international law. We take it from natural
reason and justice, from writers of known
wisdom, and from the practice Of civilized
nations.
All these are opposed to the doctrine of pcr-
petual allegiance. 1t is too injurious to the
general interests OF mankind to be tolerated.
Justice denies that men should either be con-
fined to their native soil or driven away from
it against their own will. A man may be
either exiled or imprisoned for an actual Of
fense against the law Of his own country, but
being born in it is not 4 crime for which either
punishment can be justly inflicted, Among
writers of public law, the preponderance in
weight Of authority as we'll as the majority in
number, concurs with Cicero, who declares
that the right Of cxpatriation is the firmest
foundation Of human freedom, and with Byn-
kerehocck, who utterly denies that the terri
tory of a State is the prison Of her people
In practice, no nation, on earth walks, or ever
did walk by the rule of the common law. All
the countries of Europe have received and
adopted and nRtural;zed citizens Of one anoth-
er, They have all encouraged the immigra-
tiOn Of Foreigners into their territories, and
many Of them have aided the emigration Of
their own. people. The German States have
conceded the existence of tho right, by ma
king laws to regulate its exercise. Spain and
the Spanish American States have always re-