Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-04-09

IeIatiOns UId OrId and tbe
New. England should at length formally discaim all
rights to the services of such persons and renounce
all control over sheir conduct?' 1''
Mr.. VAN TRUMP. Sir, it was the threat
of a wholesome retaliation on our part
which put a stop to this outrage once be-
lore. It is not unlikely, in nv opinion,
that this same medicine, more formally in
corporated in this bill, will be equally sal
utary now. England puts on the airs and
Establishments of siren to WOO aliens to
become her naturalized subjects. She
seeks to blast them with the fierce glance
OF Gorgon when they attempt to break
the bonds of their allegiance by ex-
many cases, without even the for
mality of a declaration of Intention or
an oath of allegiance. Thus, by the stat
ute of 13 George III, if a foreign seaman
shall serve for two years in one of her
ships of war. he becomes ipso fdcto subject
of the British Crown without further GER
emony, and is entitled to all the rights and
privileges of an Englishman, but among
which is not this right of repatriation.
Mr.. Speaker whatever the executive or
diplomatic history of this question may
have been-so much relied on by the hon
orable chairman Of the committee on For
eign Affairs-let us now, at least, correct
our legislative record. Sir, although it
may be following bad example to allude
to partisan politics upon a question like
this, yet the honorable gentleman from In
diana Mr.. Orthl made SO fierce and un-
founded an assault upon the Democratic
party when he spoke to this question the
other day, that feel justified in saying to
that gentleman and his party that it is the
more important we correct that record
now without equivocation, for the rea-
son that If the present aggressive, un-
scrupulous and unconstitutional course to-
or1 n cel,.
ernment is persisted in, that Department
will receive at the hands of any of the Eu-
ropean Powers but little consideration
upon any disputed question of internation-
al law. You cannot degrade that depart
ment at home without also degrading it in
the eyes of the world. Foreign Powers,
in the way of negotiation or official COM
munication, generally regard nation
much in the same light in which it regards
itself. If we shall depreciate and degrade
one OF our own great branches of Govern
mnrft we must reasonably expect other
Powers to follow in our footsteps, and that
they will likely treat such department. with
the same contempt it receives at our own
hands, however much it may be disguised
by seeming show of regard. 1 will be
understood, then,' Mr.. Speaker, when
say that this unwise, unmitigated. and sys-
tematic attempt to cripple and break down
SiS I-AOCubiNC W QtpIlf0 IL
OF ali its appropriate and constitutional
powers; to make the President OF the peo-
pie mere automaton, and convert his right
ful powers into "a barren scepter" in his
hands, will turn into 'aiIy nothings" even
the few Executive precedents, or rather
arguments, upon which The honor
able chairman relies for a past policy upon
this question OF eXpatriation. Sir, we can
not honestly rely upon our past legislative
nr ia1 fall Il ,Nft
question; and it will neither help the past
or benefit the future for us now to assume
any false position in regard to it. Let us
now depend upon no uncertain action or
doubtful utterances let us come up square,
ly to the mark let us satisfy the world
that however we may have dealt with the
past, we intend now and in the future to
stand by and maintain the position that we
will defend this great right at all times and
at all hazards. r.-. .f.5....-
Mr.. Speaker, when this important subject
was before Congress in 1915 the debate
took wide range, both upon the question
of power and eXpediency. Mr.. McLane,
of Delaware, especially took the ground
that it was at least doubtful whether such
a law would be constitutional, for the rea-
son that it made the Government, as he
claimed, party to the act dissoiving the
tie between the citizen and his country
4No"s Sii' OCDy lOSult
occurs in case where the statute
simply prescribes the manner in
which the citizen shall proceed to
perpetuate the evidence of his intention,
or election, to renounce his citizenship by
eXpatriation. No action of the Government
is necessary to cOnsummate the dissolution
The citizens power to separate himself
from the connection, without crime, springs
from an original inherent right, which lies
far haUnn6 and IS in wise imnaira1
surrendered by the incurrence of the obi.
CATION of citizenship. 1t is a false aSsump-
ton. therefore, to affirm that the Govern
ment is party, in any legal sense of the
term, to the voluntary act of eXpatriation
The Government is undoubtedly party tC
the act of naturalization. Its consent is
necessary to such act, for the reason that il
is no mans natural, inherent right to be.
come citizen of any particular Govern.
ment who is not ito the manner born" A
Government has the right to say who, other
than those who are native-b born, shall
become its citizens; but it has no right tC
say that its own citizens, native or natural.
iZed, shall not become citizens of any other
Government who may choose to receive
them. r i. .-- .-- -.
So far as the right of expatriation /:
concerned, no act OF the Government
is necessary to establish or exercise
it. 1t exists by the law OF ma,
ture, title as paramount to the law:
OF man as God himself is paramount TO tht
will or power of man. In its character O
a God-given right it can neither be en-
larged or restricted or abrogated by muni
cipal law. The law of nature applied to mar
and not to Government. The rights result
ing to each have no relation the one to the
other. The one is primitive and funda'
mental, the other limited and conventional
Deity endows man with his natural rights
man invests Government with its politica
powers. The right thus existing is para.
mount to the power thus created; tht
power, therefore, cannot absorb the right
In relation to the exercise of this inheren
right the citizen stands high above all the
powers of the Government; his right @
locomotion and domicile, as derived from
the universal law of nature, which is Godl
law and not mans, is subject to no human
control, and is held by a tenure wholly
independent of the political laws of thu
Government under which he lives. Sir,
was not only surprised but panied to tinC
in the report OF the committee sentimen
which is wholly at war with every AnIeri
caniidea on this subject. They say ~
:" 1t may justly be conceded that the express O
implied consent of both parties is necessary to th
extinction of mutual obligations between Govern
ment and its subjects"
Now, Mr.. Speaker, that is proposition
which has been laid down by the commit.
tee without due consideration, il they near
to apply it to this right of expatriation
Any such concession as that destroys the
right of expatritaion. An admission of the
indispensability of consent on the part o.
the Government necessarily i'm plies the
right and the power OF refusal i'll that Gov
ernment; so that the act of eXpatriatiOn
consummate, if this doctrine of the CON-
mittee be true, depends not upon an inhe-
rent and indefeasible right in the citizen
but upon the will and option of the Gov
ernment under which he lives. The CON-
mittee, with all due Difference be iEspoken
have only deluded themselves by the ust
OF inappropriate language. They speak OF
"mutual obligations" Therein lies the
fallacy. There are undoubtedly mu-
tual obligations existing between
Government and citizen while that
relation subsists, but the obligation tC