Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-04-08

80 glorions right, by divine favor, obtained for
us by our ancestors in the commencement of the
more than one commonw ealth by which no man
be compelled to leave it against his will nor re-
aest foundation of liberty. that every nan shall
have an absolute power to retain or abandon his
very essence OF this great right of
selt-expatriation, is embodied in this
single sentence of Cicero; it enunei-
ates the great truth that the natural rights
OF man are paramount to the delegated
powers OF government. As long as the Lbs
critics of Rome existed this great right of
her citizens endured. But, sir, there came
ia time, long after the liberties of the Ro-
man people had perished by Isurpation,
when there was cad retrocession of this
ancient right of the people. The rise of
the feudal system in Europe organized
very different condition ofsociety and laws.
2 To this dark era of human degradation,
when civilization was pushed back by van
7dalism and Gothic barbarity, we owe the
origin ofthis slavish doctrine of perpetual
allegiance. William the Conqueror car
ried it with him into England; sHd it eX-,
lists there to-day as the servile relic of the
Norman copquests. The question now be-
fore us and the American people, revived
by recent events and acts of ofaggression and
outrage on the rights of our, naturalized
citizens by the British Government, lis
whether we shall take an open and bold
stand in defense of those rights, to ignore
which would be to abandon the fundamen-
tai principles upon which our Government
is based. And this brings me to more
immediate but very brief consideration of
the report and bill now before the House,
as reported by the committee on Foreign
Affairs, the present bill being a substitute
for the one originally reported. "a,
Mr.. Speaker, there is one proposition
very clear to my mind, and it is this: we
should legislate upon this very grave and
delicate question up to its highest status
of dignity and Importance, asserting all its
rights and assuming all its responsibilities,
or we should not legislate upon it all. /
shall show before take my seat, by brief
recurrence to our past judicial and legisla
tive history upon this question, that if we
now act at all we should act fully up to all
the serious requirements of the occasion
do not mean to say, sir, that if my views
& are not embodied in this bill. by way of
/ certain amendments which shall propose
l intend to vote against it. Not at all. IT
it is the best thing we can get, by way of
establishing, amoug other things, a mode
of evidence of the fact of eXpatriation, it
shall have my earnest support, although
it may partake more of the nature of
resolution than law; a declaration
OF opinion more than rule of action
for both Government and citizen. | am
free TO admit. however, that the present bill
is very great Improvement upon the for
mer one. l very much regretted, Mr..
Speaker, that the distinguished chairman
of the committee ON Foreign Affairs [Mr.
Banksi refused the other day to entertain
the important amendment proposed by my
honorable friend from Pennsylvania Mr..
Woodward to the bill as originally report
ed To the House. Some such amendment
fr hn nin oil nj l-tryas
tend by the present legislation to put an
end to the doubtful position which this
Government has heretofore occupied upon
: this question. 1 had also prepared some
amendments to that bill, and which the
gentleman from Pennsylvania Mr.. Wood
wardl and myself had compared with his
own. They are similar in design, though
mine are more specific in detail. Unless
shall be cut of, by, the operation of the pre-
viouS Question, intend to offer them as
amendments to ,Jhe present bill, and j now,
sir, wish to have them read for the infor-
nation ofthe House; or, if that is object
ed to, 1 desire the Clerk to read them as.
part of my remarks so that they may go
to the country along with the bill. He will
please read from page II of the printed
amendments. e.
The Clerk read as follows:
Add to original bill the following sections:
SEc.-. Aad be ft JiIrther enacted. That when
born or adopted, by declaration in writing. made
and executed in district court of the United
his last egal residence. done in court to be by
said court entered of record in sad court declare
the United States. and shall thereupon depart out
of the United States. such person shall, from and
as having exercised his right of expatriatoD under
this act, and shall thereafter be considered no
citizen of the nitei States, and as absolved from
all allegiance thereto. and as having voluntarily
linquished al right and benefit Of protection there
SEC. and Be 1t further enacted That any per-
son, either as native or adopted citiz of The
ing out of the United States in accordance there
with and being thus by this act deprived of all pro-
tee io1 trom and nosolved from aiiessnce to the
citizen of the United States in any other manner
than under and by virtue Of the provisions of the
MI. VAN TRUMP Mr.. Speaker the
adoption ofgthese or similar, amendments
will not-only be appropriate but essential,
for two reasons:
First That inasmuch as the act of expatria-
tion depends almostentirely upon a question
of intention on the part of the citizen, it is
a matter of the highest Importance, both to
Government and citizen, that some author
itative means should be adopted by law
whereby such fact of intention shall not be
left to be solved by doubtful acts or more
doubtful construction. If such system is
adopted then the citizen knows that such
intention is manifested and made suscepti-
BILE of proof by certain record facts, which
relieves him from all apprehension of
any infraction OF the laws of the country
he has just left, by acting in accordance
with his new obligations to the country
of his adoption; and the Government from
which he has thus expatriated himself will
be relieved from the same doubt and uncer-
tainty as to its obligation to throw over
him the 8gis of its power to defend and
protect him in a foreign or extra-territorial
Jurisdiction.
Second. The spirit and evident point of
the proposed legislation, as embodied in
this bill in much stronger and prouder
tone than in the one first reported, is a de-
mand of the other Governments ofthecivil-
lied world that they shall recognize the
great principle of the right of expatriation
of their own citizens or subjects when
emigrating to this country with an inten-
tion of permanent domicile. That is what
this bill means, If, in its present shape, it
means anything beyond a mere, but forci-
BILE, declaration of opinion. In the way of
governmental policy and official action
hereafter l desire that it shall mean some
thing more than such mere abstract decla-
ration. Whatever we require other Gov
ernments to do we should be willing to do
ourselves; and especially should we occupy
this position now, when we seek to repu-
diate our past action upon the very subject
under consideration. Sir, since the down.
fail of the feudal system in Europe-a sys-
q TEN which branded governmental owner
ship upon man as we brand cattle or mules
in modern days, no Government within the
pale of civilization has refused to recognize
this fundamental and inalienable right of
the individual citizen, save that narrow
minded and selfish dynasty which is seizing
and imprisoning, without crime against
herlaws. free-born American citizens, with
the fixed and nefarious purpose, as believe,
of embroiing us in a war at time,
as she thinks, when we are but lily pre-
pared for the conflict. --. \