The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-15
sRxRxx or Tzz PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading JOurn"is
Upon Ourreut Toplcs-OOuaDIlod bverV
Day for the Rvenin@ Telegraph.
THE NEW NATURALIZATION BILL.

tunes of their party, are attempting W eIecI
such barriers against the removal OF aienage
as will perpetually exclude immigrants from
Che elective. franchise. A bill with this nefa-
rious object has been reported by the Judici-
arv Committee of the House of Representa-
tiyes. This bill is of SO monstrous charac-
ter that it challenges the notice and should
call forth the indignant remonstrances of all
henest men.
We will first point out the temporary effect
of this infamous bill, and then explain its
permanent operation.
It will be seen that, by this scheme, no
foreign-born person can hereafter receive
certificate of citizenship who has not, at q
period four years previous, made an applica-
tion in the form and manner prescribed by
the bill. The effect of its passage will be to
annul and cancel every declaration of inten-
tion heretofore made, but not yet matured
and consummated by the actual naturaiza-
ton of the person making it. 1t will be all
the same whether he has resided in the coun-
try one year or FIVE; whether he has made the
declaration now required and taken the legal
oath or not. He cannot be naturalized after
the passage of this bill without making
a new application to a different court,
in different manner, and then waiting
four years for naturalization papers that
will confer no rights until the lapse of a still
further period of six months. If this un-
righteous bill passes, the immigrant who
arrived yesterday and those who have been
five years in the country and made the pre-
liminary declaration will stand on precisely
the same footing By the proposed law, resi-
dence counts for nothing If it was residence
prior to the date of his application. No ap-
plication is to be regarded unless 1t was made
TO the clerk of United States court, whereas
all previous declarations of intention have
been made to State courts. By the new law
noua NJ ithaca daolarationa nf intentiOn cOuld
be regarded; and consequently, if it passes,
there will be total interruption of naturali-
zations for four years and six months. This
is villainous scheme for weakening the De-
mocratic party in the next Presidential elec-
tion; desperate manoeuvre to save the Re-
publican party from its approaching doom.
If it succeeds, there will be no fresh naturali-
tial term.
The permanent operation of the bill will be
almost equally obstructive.
By restricting the authority to grant natu-
ralization papers to the Federal courts it
particularly denies the right to all except
those who happen to reside in the immediate
vicinity of the very few places where
such courts are held, and denies it even
to a majority of those who have that ad-
vantage. There are in the United States nine
circuit judges; and generally one district
judge in each State, but in some of the larger
States two. 1t is a sheer impossibility for so
small o number of judges to attend to all
the cases of naturalization, even If they
were encumbered with no other business.
Naturalizations can be granted only in term
time, and the person must apply at least
twenty days before the beginning of the
term or session of the Court. In every case,
evidence must be heard one or more wit
nesses must be brought by the applicant and
examined by the Court in relation to the
facts and circumstances And any person
who chooses to come into the Court and op-
pose the application is entitled to offer ooun-
ter-testimony and produce set of witnesses
and have them examined. Each individual
case may thus be prolonged into trial; and,
with SO small number Of courts, not hun
dredth part of the applications could be heard
and decided.
But the utter insuffciency of the judicial
machinery provided for the transaction of the
business is not the only, nor even the worst,
means of obstruction contrived by the authors
of this rascally bill. The distance which ap-
plicants would be compelled to go to attend
the court, and the expenses and delay Incl
dent to the proceedings, would discourage and
repel the greater number. Many of them
would have to travel hundreds of miles. They
are required not only to attend the court
themselves, but each applicant for naturaliza-
tion must bring with him one or more wit
nesses to swear to the truth of his statements
Each applicant is thus to be subjected tc
double or triple travelling expenses double ol
triple tavern bills, double or triple loss ol
time and wages for he must, of course, pay
the expenses of his witnesses as well as hi
own. And then he can never know hov
long he may be detained at the distant seat o.
justice. If the applicants should be nu
merous, and the court choked with othe
business, the poor applicant might be de
tanned for weeks with his witnesses-his tav
ern bills growing, his wages stopped at home
his witnesses accumulating demands agains
him for their loss of time. He would hav
to take his turn among the applicants, ant
he could never know beforehand that hi
turn would not come last He could no
even have any assurance that the overbur
dered court would get through with all the
applications at that session; and if it did not
his loss of time, money, and patience woul
have to be incurred a second, and, for augh
he could know, third or a fourth time
Under such law naturalization would be s
troublesome, expensive, dilatory, and vexa
tious, that few would apply for it, and this
the evident object for which this disgracefu
sooundrelly bill has been planned and COZ
cocted.
After having admitted all the stupid, ignc
rant, semi-barbarous negroes, fresh froi
brutalizing slazery, to the elective franchise
the radicals are now engaged in plot to pr
vent Intelligent white Europeans, who EN-
CRATE to these shores, from acquiring any {
the rights of citizenship. The country ougl
to ring with cries of execration and remol
STRANGE against this odious bill to preveI
naturalization
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