The San Francisco call., 1904-06-21

enough 10 enlist uncle sam TO DdCh
him in his roguery or deviltry abroad.
MAKES TROUBLE ABROAD.
While the naturalized citizen remains
| in the country of his adoption and be-
! haVes himself he is on all fours with
the native born, but when he goes
( abroad-for instance. to his native
! cOuntry-it is different.
| Congress passed a law-June p, 1865
known as the eXpatriation act, in
which it is asserted that "all natural
lied citizens of the United States, while
/ in foreign countries. are entitled to and
shall receive from this Government the
1 same protection of person and property
| which is accorded to native born cit
liens"
To the man who seeks to evade du-
ties and obligations imposed by his
native land by moving beyond its
borders this serves as a most attractive
/ invitation TO Join us" Having so
I served the newly made citizen may go
staggering back to his native land
with a chip on his shoulder to find that,
however benevolent Uncle Sam may
be in his intentions, he cannot by any
law Of his own annul the laws of other
countries. So the man who, to escape
service in the army, for instance. ran
away TO America and returns to his
native land a citizen of the United
States, depending upon the expatriatiOn
act to protect him, will find that law to
be entirely impotent in the matter let
him beseach and annoy the American
representative as he Will.
The thing has been done so often
that even the obscure COnsuls know
that ii is useless to report the case.
The naturalized citizen learns and must
learn that when he passes beyond the
jurisdiction of the United States he
must beware.
1t is quite the thing to accuse the
United States Of failure TO protect its
citizens abroad. but the records in such
cases at the State Department show
that in almost every instance where
such charge is made the alleged victim
was either Of doubtful nationality or
he had invoked the power Of his adopt
&c country to relieve him Of the penalty
Of an obligation assumed prior to his
having become an American citizen. 1t
is these citizens" many of whom can
not speak the language or have not
spent time enough in the country to
understand or appreciate remotely its
institutions, that are forever creating
embarrassment and irritation in our
International relations.
SHIFTING ALLEGIANCE.
1t may be interesting to recall that
this right 10 shift allegiance, now so
lightly exercised and almost universal
ly acknowledged, was not formally as
sented TO by Great Britain until so re-
cent a year as 1870, when Parliament
declared that a Briton was no longer
such when he formally became a citi-
zen OF subject Of another state. The
contention that a Briton could not de-
nationaliZe himself or even that his
sovereign could not denationalize him
grn - "a a q laa nv
down to 1914, when she abandoned il
70 the contrary contention by the Unit
ed States and exchanged certain pris-
Oners OF war, formally her subjects,
but taken in the service Of this coun-
try And the curious thing about it
was that at that time there was no
such thing as a citizen of the United
States" Such a thing had no defini-
tion until article XIV, amended, de-
clared that all persons born or natur-
allied in the United States and subject
10 the jurisdiction thereof are citizens
of the United States and Of the State
in which they reside"
The doctrine Of Jefferson had, pre-
vious to that time. been assented to
that person was a citizen of the
United States only as he was a citizen
cf one of the States. A person so un-
happy as to have been born in the
great public domain, in the Territories
or IN the District Of Columbia, was
not a citizen of the United States
though subject to their" jurisdiction.
Since the war and the fourteenth
amendment-the influence of both of
which is as meaningful to the white
as to the black-and the United States
has come to be spelled it, in it's
grammatical relation. a person born or
naturalized in the United States is
citizen of that country whether he has
a residence in any particular State or
Territory or not. A person may be
a citizen Of the United States without
being citizen of any State, but none
may be a citizen of a State without
being also a citizen Of the United
States.