New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-01-28
RIGHTS or NdTURALIZED CITIZENS
ARROAD.

ABROAD.
The report of the Committee on Foreign Al
fairs on the subject of the rights of naturazed
American citizens travelling abroad has been
presented to the House of Representatives, and
we print the greater part of it in our paper
this morning. Like all our official documents,
it is needlessly long, and if it had been shorter
it would have been a good deal stronger. The
Committee show that the doctrine of perpetual
allegiance upon which Great Britain insists has
no other foundation than the laws of feudal
tenure. which are now entirely obsolete, and
which are in no country more absolutely re-
jected than in Great Britain itself. The
subject in former times owned him
self forever the servant of the s0ver-
egn "for the land he held of him.
But the idea that the king is the owner of the
land is now universally discarded; the world
belongs to its inhabitants, not to its rulers;
and the obligations which sprang out of the
old system of tenure are 10 longer III force
Every man owes certain services to his govern
ment in return for the benefits he receives
from it but those services cannot be claimed
from his descendants to the second and third
generations, nor can he himself be absolutely
debaned from renouncing both the benefits
and the obligations of citizenship and trans
ferring his allegiance to another power. His
government may forbid his going abroad in
time of war; it may hold him until he has dis
charged all the service actually due by HIM
to the state but it cannot rightiully
bind him to the fulllment of future
or conditional service; it cannot forbid his
transferring his allegiance in time OF peace,
when his own country has no need of him ;
above all when it has tacitly consented to his
emigIating, or has even aided him to 20 abroad,
it cannot alterward claim n service which it
has thus virtually renowned. The report
quotes pertinent extract from Puffendorf,
which states the American view of the case as
plainly as any one could wish "Wherc the
elderly of removal hath been promscuously
allowed" says this eminent authority, and
"the subject settles himself and his effects nm
"der the protection of foreign state the
" commonwealth which he left hath no longer
"any authority over him"
1t has been objected that the decisions of
some of the United States courts have sus-
tanned the claim of perpetual allegiance To
this the report replies that it has only been
sustained in this way Certain judges have
rs it stood at the time of the War of In
dependence, holds good in the United States
until it is changed by legislation, and that this
theory of indefeaSbe allegiance was undoubt-
edly pretension of the English common law
at the time of the Revolution. But this opinion
is not a general one, and has no force so long
as it is not supported by either legislative or
executive action OF by authoritative decision OF
the courts.
The report admits that the injustice of the
principle is more apparent than tine remedy,
but expresses the conviction that further dis
cussiOn of the question may lead to IN agree
ment between the governments now 80 much
at variance. We share IN this conviction, and
a recent communication from " liistorcus TO
The London Times, indicates very clearly the
readiness of the English people To revise
their claims, and approach the controversy
in calm and reasonable spirit. This
wcll-knOwn writer exposes the absurdities OF
the British theory far more effectually than our
own Foreign Committee has done it, and shows
how the same measure which England metcs
out to America she herself is i'll danger of
receiving from France. The bill which the
Committee present at the close of their report
will, no doubt. produce a good effect;
and with "a little temperate diplomatic
negotiation we do not despair OF soon
seeing the law, whether national or
municipal, clearing itself, to cite the words of
"Historicus," flom this inyeterate scandal.
But at any rate, and at any cost, the inviola-
bility of American citizenship must be main
tanned The vigorous measures authorized by
the Committees bill must be fearlessy carried
out; and whether Great Britain be brought to
acknowledge the soundness of our theory or
not, it must be distinctly understood that we
shall not submit TO the exercise of hers.