The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-09
NATURALIZATION OF cHINAMEs.

|
| NATURALIZATION OF CHINAMKN.
Wong Chin Foo, q Chinese resident of
New York city and graduate Of Yale
college, recently made application to the
secretary Of state for passport. Assist
ant Secretary Wharton refused the applica-
ton on the ground that no Chinaman can
become q citizen of the United States ac-
cording to the decision Of Circuit Judge
Sawyer in California in 1878, which deci-
sion has never been reversed by higher
court. The present law expressly forbids
the granting of passports to anybody not
q citizen, but Wong Chin Foo claims to
have been admitted to citizenship by an
order of the circuit court at Grand Rapids,
Mich, in April, 1874, long before there was
any express statutory prohibition against
the naturalization of Chinese subjects, and
when the only requirement of the law as
to the race of those applying for naturali-
cation was that they should be free white
persons or aliens of African nativity or
African descent.
The circuit court Of Michigan held, 1t Is
assumed, that Monaghan was white
person within the meaning Of the laws OF
the United States; nevertheless Assistant
Secretary Wharton declines to grant this
Chinaman's application for passport on
the ground that the secretary OF state IS
prohibited from granting passports to any
other persons than citizens OF the United
States, auH that the naturalization of
Cinnamon under the law, even as it exis-
ted In April, 1874, was unauthorized and
void.
This view of the state department is
sustained by the decision of the late Judge
Sawyer, already referred to. Judge Saw
yer, in the case of All Yup, held
that the expressions "white per-
sons" as used in the naturalization
laws excludes Mongolians. In the United
States Senate In 1870, when the law was
changed so as to permit the naturalization
of persons of African nativity and descent,
Senator Sumner and all other participants
in the debate assumed that Cinnamon
were necessarily excluded from naturali-
cation by the law as it then stood, which
provided for the naturalization of white
persons only. Judge Sawyer fairly held
that the Monaghan or yellow race of man.
kind constitutes one class, and the eau
casian or white race another.
Secretary Wharton therefore holds I'M
der this decision of the United States cir
cult court in California that Wong Chin
Foo was not legally naturalized by the
Michigan court, and refuses to grant him
passport. Wong Chin Foo came to this
country when he was IA; is now 81 years
old and has been in this country ever
since, except for three years visit to
China. He regards himself as citizen of
this country, and claims that under his
naturalization papers he has voted in city,
state and national elections.
Another Chinaman, Tom Lee, natural
lied twenty years ago, and who has been
deputy sheriff, was denied a passport
last fall on the same ground, viz: that the
14th section of the act of congress of May
6, 1882, specifically provides that there
after no state court nor court of the
United States shall admit Chinese to citi-
zenship. Prior TO the date of that act the
subject of naturalization in this respect
was regulated by section 2,169 of the Re-
vised Statutes, as amended by Is Statutes,
31s, and under that section it has been held
by the United States circuit court for the
district of California that the naturaliza-
ton of Chinese person was without war
rant of law.
Wong Chin Foo, who is q very. bright
man, has this to say of his present pecu-
liar standing: Il have severed my con-
nection with China. / am therefore cast
off by the Chinese government. The state
department says am not citizen of this
country. Then l am man without a
country, and / confess l don't like to
think Of myself in that desolate position.
Judge Roger ]. Pryor. of the New York
court of common pleas, holds that "this
particular Chinaman who was naturalized
is citizen of the United States and that
he is entitled to passport. When the
court in Grand Rapids admitted him it
interpreted the statute to mean that he
was white person. And that interpreta-
ton will stand for him until the United
States government makes special case of
it and goes into court and asks that that
naturalization be set aside.
'In the early supreme court decisions
there is a case which applies. 1t was then
held that any person, naturalized when he
should not have been, is citizen until a
special decision setting that particular
naturalization aside is made"
Under the present law the only aliens
who can be naturalized are free white
persons and aliens who are Africans or
who are descended from Africans. Judge
Sawyer held that "white" in the statute
means Caucasian. Under this definition
the excluded races include not only Chi
nese, but Japanese, Tartars, Esquimaux,
Firms, Hindoos, Malays, Papuans, Aus
| tralians and Dongolese, while the Hotten-
| tot, the Senegambian, the Kaffir, the Hal
| tan, the Arab and the Foolah could be
| naturalized.