The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-04

polls every Monaghan as well as Caucasian
who has been born in this country, whose
parents have not been native born or
naturalized, save that children of parents
connected with the diplomatic service
here OF other nations are excluded from
the privilege of citizenship.
The bringing up of this case as test
case came about in peculiar manner.
Attorney George d. Collins of this City
had written several articles in the Ameri-
can Law Review, and they eventually
drew the attention of the Department of
Justice at Washington to the question of
the citizenship of native-born Chinese in
particular and that OF all native born
children of parents subject to foreign juris-
diction IN general. The opportunity pre-
scented itself of making a test case for the
United States Supreme Court to finally
determine.
Justice Field had already delivered
Circuit Court opinion, with the concur
renee OF the lurlsts sitting with him at the
time, and i n that opinion he held as Judge
Morrow has held. The Field opinion has
never been quite satisfactory, however,
but as it had not been questioned Chinese
have been generally considered to be
American citizens if born here of parents
of ordinary residence, and such have been
landed without any further ado upon
their return from trip to China.
Accordingly Attorney General Judson
Harmon sent instructions here to Mr..
Foote to have a test case made of Wong
Kim Ark, and Mr.. Collins was appointed
amicuS cuTi9.
All the facts in Wong Kim Ark's case
were agreed to by the opposing counsel
He was born in this City in 1873 at ISL
Sacramento street, his parents being Wong
81 Ping. merchant and Der of the
firm of Quong Sing & Co. at that place,
and woman named Wee Lee. His
parents were admitted and domiciled
under the provisions OF the Burlingame
treaty and were not engaged in any diplo-
matte capacity. In 1890 Wong and his
parents went to China and he returned
the same year on the steamer Gaelic and
was allowed TO land on the ground of his
birth He went again to China in 1894
and last August he returned on the Coptic
His papers were all straight. On his
first trip he carried 4 certificate signed by
Chinese Consul f. A. Bee and bearing the
names. as witnesses, of Mart r. Stevens of
7 Kearny street, +. W. Sanderson OF 700
California street. William Fisher of 7l3
California street, and f. Berna of 615
Cough street. On the second trip he car.
ried an Identification over the signatures
of William Fisher of 1903 Powell street, f.
Berna OF 6l5 Cough street and L. Seinger
OF 932 Powell street.
To make case 1t was necessary to first
have him refused landing by Collector of
the Port John II. Wise. He was accord
ingly detained on board one or another
of the Occidental and Oriental Company's
steamers Then habeas corpus proceed
ings began in October Hoo Lung Suey,
friend, being the petitioner, and Naphtaly,
Friedrich q Alderman and Thomas D.
Riordan acting as his attorneys.
The writ was granted November II and
Mr.. Foote interviewed for the Government
on the same day, and two days later the
opposing counsel agreed to all the facts so
as to have the main question itself of citi-
zenship decided.
The position taken by Wong's counsel
was that he was entitled to citizenship
under the constitution of the United
States. On the other hand Mr.. Foote con-
tended that the word Jurisdiction in the
sentence, "all persons born or naturalized
In the United States and subject to the
Jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the
United States, meant political and not
merely legal jurisdiction; that the Federal
Supreme Court had already defined the
meaning of the word; that the child as a
matter OF course is subject to the same
political jurisdiction as his unnaturalized
parents; that the common law doctrine
OF birth within the dominion of a king can
not apply 20 a republic that as Judge
Storey decided early in the history of the
United States, citizenship is governed by
international law, ana net the common
law of any one country, and that as Con-
gress had expressly leg1slated against the
admission by the naturalization process of
Chinese to citizenship, native-born Chi
nese should come within the same exclu-
sion.
Judge Morrow in his opinion of twenty
four typewriter pages treats at length all
the objections raised by the Government.
He goes right to the question at issue,
which he puts in this wise:
The question to be determined is whether
person born in the United States, whose father