The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-15

he will remain as free as he is now to act on |
his own Judgment. Nothing but conscious
ness that he is weak with the people could
have hurried him into the indiscretion of at
tempting to refute the report of Congress
sional' committee whose substance he knows
only by hearsay. 1t is not for him. but for
the House, to supervise the action of its
committees; and even the House does not go
behind committee and criticize report
before 1t is presented.
THE RIGHTS OF NATURALIZED CITI-
ZENS ABROAD.
From the N. Y. Stun.
On the 18th of April last, treaty was ne
gotiated at London between Mr.. Motley, the
Ambassador of the United States, and Earl
Clarendon, the British Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, by which Great Britain relinquishes
forever the old British doctrine of citizen
ship, and recognizes fully the right of any
British subject to abandon allegiance to the
British crown, and become full citizen of
this republic.
This treaty is now before the Senate for
considerations and as it only declares priu-
ciple for which the United States have always
contended, and takes away all occasion for
future controversy it will undoubtedly be
ratified. We trust, however, that its ratifca-
ton will not be made q pretext for the
abandonment by our Government of the
claims of naturalized citizens, based upon
violations of their rights which have already
been committed
Take, for instance the very case to which
the negotiation of the proposed treaty is
owing. On the first day of June, 1867, John
Warren, an Irishmsn and British bject by
birth, who in 1856 was naturalized as a citi-
zen of the United States, landed in Ireland
and Immediately after landing was arrested
and thrown into prison by the British Gov
- L.
indicted and committed for trial for construc-
tive treason as a conspirator, for words
spoken in New York, and for an overt act
committed in Ireland by other parties, three
months before his arrival. He demanded, as
an alien, to be tried by jury half of Ame-
rican citizens and half of British subjects;
but this demand was denied by the court,
on the express ground that he was not an
alien, but British subject, on the old prin-
ciple that he who is once under the allegi-
ance of English sovereigns remains SO for
ever. By the application of the same prin-
ciple he was onvicted of the offense for
which he was indicted, although it was ad-
mitted that he had personally committed no
overt act on British soil; and he was sem
fenced to fifteen years penal servitude. A
portion of this sentence, with all it's degra-
dation and hardships, he actually suffered.
But finally, on the 4th of March, 1869, he
as British subject, and permitted TO return
to this country. He has laid his claim for
damages before Congress, and his memorial
is now in the hands of the Senate Commit
tee on Foreign Relations. Meanwhile, from the
agitation of the question which his case has
occasioned, has sprung the treaty now be-
| fore the Senate; so that he has, at all events,
the satisfaction of knowing that by his agency
Great Britain has been brought to a formal
admission of the rights of naturalized Ameri-
can citizens, which was not extorted by the
war of 1872, although that war was fought
respecting that very question.
The remarkable fact, however, is that Mr..
Warren should have been compelled to petit
ton Congress at all for redress. One would
have thought that as soon as the news arrived
| of his arrest and imprisonment, his liberia
ton would have been demanded by the Presi-
| dent, and the demand enforced by all the
power of the nation. Mr.. Johnson, however,
always had a morbid hatred of Fenianism,
| and that a man was even accused of it was
enough to condemn him in his eyes. But now
that we live under different administration,
which has made some promises, we are still
waiting to see whether there is to be any
change of policy in this respect. But at any
| rate, if the Senate does not insist upon COM
pensation being made to Mr.. Warren before
it ratifes the Motley-Clarendon treaty, it will
show less regard for the honor of the nation
than we have right to expect from it.