Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-04-09
The Natural Rights of MAN Par
amount TO the Delegated Pow
ers of the Governments. %
-tHnH O. .lHmHiHl aiT ld0H is-
i921 SPEECHES 'aaa,
Ts fHa OF 1a 5H. a-a aaI
HON. PHILADELPH VAN TRUMP
g7GfrfJ i1 AND eo Er;as-iaf u
: HON. GEORGE W. MORGAN,
rs u1sIf lss1 f.j ON sJ 2ut SIRE sl
THE ExPATRIATION BILL !;
7.i' s'-' DELIVERED
= In the House of Representative,
eii 5rF March 10, 1865. $40 -
, ,ICONCLUsIoN-l

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/ Mr.. Speaker, we all know that zone of the
most difficult problems in the law of evf-
dence is this very question of intention.
As legal fact it is almost always ascer-
tainedinferentially and by implication up
on certain other facts. 1t frequently gives
rise to the incest Determinations; and the
most subtle deductions in the whole wide
range of the law. Weshould legislate upon
this question to cure this defect, and thus
avoid all difficulty in relation to the essen
-tial fact of idomicile. 1t is important
enough to attract our serious attention; !;
| and 1 hope the House will so amend this
bill as to accomplish the object. The prop
osition ought not and cannot be controvert-
ed, thas whenever the mode by which the
citizens of free Government are to exer-
else their acknowledged rights is involved
Ia doubtor obscurity the duty is devolved
upon the Legislative authority to prescribe
the manner of their exercise, so that their
full and free enjoyment shall be amply Sc
cured. The error to which the discussion
in this House fifty years ago gave rise upon
This question was the assumption that if we
had the power to prescribe the manner in
which citizenship might be voluntarily re-
I Iinquished we also, for that very reason,
had the power TO abolish the right OF re-
itself. Sir, itrequires nolar-
gument to expose the fallaey o, such a po-
sition. 1t involves this absurdity: that
because the legislative power may be eXer-
cised in aid of right it may also be used
for its overthrow and destruction.
Mr.. Speaker, when the gentlemen adj
vance the proposition that the United
States have always claimed and asserted
the right of expatriation in relation to the
emigration of American as well as foreign
/ "a; rEc hQ
| ed as having reference more to the eXecu-
| tive department of the Government than
to any other, or to all combined. AS L
have already shown, the other great de-
partments of the Government have not
been in accord with the executive upon
this question. But even that department,
in its joint action with the Senate, utterly
failed, on great occasion In our history,
| to assert and settle the right. 1t is known
! to us all that the prominent and leading
cause of the war of 1912 was this
| question of eXpatriation. England had
seized upon and impressed into
her naval service some ten ii or
twelve thousand of our r'naturalized citizens
formerly her own subjects. She refused
to make reparation or discontinue the prac-
tice, and denied our right to question her
proceedings. We drew the sword; and
after fighting for three years on land and
| sea; after spending millions of treasure and
sacrificing thousands of valuable lives;
after covering our arms with glory and our
| standards with victory, the treaty making
power of the Government negotiated "a
peace without word or a syllable of allu-
sion to the right of eXpatriationl The war
intensified but did not settle the question.
As between ourselves and England it has
remained an open and unsettled question
ever since. And now, after the lapse OF
half a century, after repeated acts of lnso-
lence and outrage upon our adopted cltl-
zens by Power which drove us into one
war and seems to invite us into another
upon the same question, we are expected
now to adopt, or rather continue, a sort OF
non-committal policy. in the vain hope O.
escaping unfriendly criticism upon the past.
am in favor of no such policy. l want =
full declaration now upon both sides of th'
question, by way of correction OF the pasl
and insuring just understanding OF tht
future. 3 m rt. -. .a
Sir, if we shall fail to assume now tht
true position upon this question, we shall
be Justly amenable to the charge which has
been SO truthfully made against the Gov
ernment of England that is to say. we will
render ourselves liable to the charge that
while we rigidly assert the right to natur-
alize foreign citizens into ourown Govern
ment, we, in effect, by denying the appro-
pirate means, refuse the right of eXpatria
ton to our own, whether native or adopt
ed. That is precisely the position of the
British Government to-day, OF which W,
complain so much. That Government, too,
naturaliZed aliens, while it refuses to them.
when naturaliZed, as well as to her native
born subjects, the great correlative right OF
expatriation. England claimed during thu
war of 1872, as she still claims, that any o,
her subjects who had become naturaliZeO
citizens of another country according tt
| its laws, and while they were beyond heI
Dower of protection, still continue to owe
her such power of, allegiance as woulo
make it tire eason in them to bear arms against
her in their adopted country. 1t was
in the exercise of this infamous power, ant
by which she is again filling her prisons
with naturalized American citizens, thatil
the progress of that war she inhumanll
treated hundreds of Irishmen and others a.
rebels and traitors, after she had knowing
| iy permitted and encouraged them to emf
! crate to this country. Mr. Webster, in hin
| letter to Lord Ashburion, on the contro-
verted question of impressment. In 1912
| puts the Inconsistency and fraud OF th'
| British policy in SO forcible light as to
utterly silence the English negotiator, wht
conveniently declined to answer his argu-
ments L ask the Clerk to read the passage
marked in the document now send to his
desk.
The Clerk read as follows:
England acknowledges herself overburdened
with population of the poorer classes Every iu-
stance of the emigration of persons of those classes
is eearded by her as a benefit. England, therefore
| Piled to emigrants to assist their conveyance frou
pu bic funds and the New World. and most espe-
ands of 6ersubjects thus elected from the bosom Of
their native land by the necessities of their condi-
tion. They come away from poverty and distress N
oyercrowded cities to seek employment comfort and
new homes in country of free institutions, possess
| ed BY kindred race spe aking their own language
| those to which they have been accustomed and q
| country which. upon the whole, Is found to pos
Character and condition Than any Other
on the face of the globe 1t is stated that in the
't tbousand entrants left the single por
of Liverpool for the United States, being four OF
i've times many f al Bstsh COLONIES and All obe
| parts of the world. of these crowds OF emlgrantS
many arrive in our cities IN circumstance OF gr a.
restitution and the charities of the country, both
| public and private, severely taxed to relieve
their immediate wants. In time they mingie with
/ the new community in which they lind the useives
| and seek means of Livingstone find employment il
the cities: others go to the frontiers, to cultivate
lands reclamed from the Forest and a greater oI
uralized citz ms. enter into the merchant service
a naf hsF war bres out
England and European Power. can an thing be
general ssntimen1s Of mankind, than that EpSlspd ~ @
should seek out these persons. thus encouraged BY
ner and compelled by their own condition, to leave
their native homes, tear them away from their new
employments, their new political relations and their
domestic connections, and force them to undergo the
dangers and hardships of military service for
try which has thus ceased to be their own countryi
i Certa My certainly my lord, there can be bat o1e
answer to this question. Is it not far more reason.
| able that England should either prevent such emf
grafton of her subjects. that. if she encourage
and promote it, she should leave them, not to the
II en- broilme ent of double and contradictory aIleei
\ ance, but to their own voluntary choice, to form
such relations. political or social as ey fit il
4 The country where they to find their bread anf
n TO the laws and Institutions Of which they are tc
II look for defense and prutectionf s'.' T.fst
Il "a question of such, serious importance ough
n now to be put at rest. If the Unitod States Civ,
II shelter and proTection to those whom the policy O
N England annually casts upon their shores-if, b.
II the benign influence of their Government and in
II stitutions by he happy condition of the coun
trv those emigrants become raised from poverty b