The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-06-10
The Bachelors Idea Of Citizenship.

The Bachelors Idea of Citizenship
The word citizen has a signi6.
canoe which has grown with the
age of civilization. Even among
the early Hebrews. it had already
become a strong testimony to patti
otism by the wide contrast which 1t
suggested with the word ''alien.
Although it marked separation
from all the rest Of the world, it
suggested devotion and allegiance
TO the nation as a whole, rather
than to the tribe as among the
Arabs, or to the city, as among the
Greeks. 1t emphasized then. as {
should emphasize now, the idea of
nationality. 1t was usually a birth
right, and was conferred upon for
eigners only in exceptional cases. !
There was recognized, indeed, in
Israel, a kind of half citizenship |
which conferred some of the rights |
Of the full citizen. But the holding
of real estate was not among them. |
That wise restriction was left for |
later nations, like t h e United |
States, to annul. 1t involved duties
corresp nding with its peculiar
rights, as it ought to do. But en-
tire strangers had few rights, or
none, beyond that OF mere hospital
ity or liberation.
Are there no hints for America
in these provisions? In ancient
Greece, citizenship was mainly
local or even a municipal matter.
1t had no large sense of nationality.
This conception rendered it difficult
for any nation, in the modern sense
of the term, to exist, and lead, in
the earlier ages, to an almost
chronic state OF civil war 1t fos-
tered narrow partisanship which
had some advantages, but at the
same time kept Athens and Sparta !
rivals and hostile instead of COLI
leagues. 1t was the doctrine of
urban rights or state rights rpm
mad.
Not until the time of the contest
with Persia did Grecian patriotism
assert itself.
If Americans would learn to value
the love of country as greater,
sweeter and more wholesome than
the love of locality, Het them study
the qualities Of citizenship n
Greece. Aristotle, especially, would
aid them ysT6r, with his comprehen-
siys and philosophic outlook, he
regarded as true citizen every one
that participated in the legislative
and judicial authority of state.
Roman citizenship was at once
narrower and broader. 1t was the
prerogative of a privileged class
amidst world of slaves. 1t was
by no means the common right of
manhood, but valuable franchise,
obtained by inheritance purchase
(as in the case of St. PauD, militia
ry service, government favor, or
emancipation Of course 1t con-
ferred peculiar rights. Am n G
these rights was that of trial before
Imprisonment and that of appeal to
the supreme power of the State.
Yet, at the same time, ii was ma
tional enfranchisement indelible
anywhere throug hout the great EN-
pire.
We need do nothing more than
revert to the restrictions and reser-
vations of these ancient forms of
citizenship -.rcstrictions and reser-
vations whose remains still survive
in various forms and degrees within
nearly all European nations to this
hour--in order to gain high APP
probation Of the unprecedented {
privileges of citizenship in TIL e
United States.
Many of our rights, which in 9th
er agzs aud nations have been con- {
ferred upon the few as the special /
of citizenship, are now
by us as inherent and in Z
alienable human rights, conferred 6
BY the Creator and forfeited only
through crime. 1t even seems
strange to us that life, liberty, and 3
the pursuit of happiness needed to :
be won by a revolution. We forget 4
that their recognition as natural 8
rights is a comparative novelty Z
We grant them without question to 8
aliens as well as to citizens. Z
ITO hf continued \