The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-08-21

Of African descent, but to all those OF
African nativity thereby proffering
tine boon of American citize nship to the
comparatively savage and strange inhab-
itants of the dark continent while
withholding it from the intermediate
and much better qualified red and yell
low races.
HARMLESS LEGISLATIVE BUN.
COMBE.
"However, there is this to be said in
excuse for this seeming inconsistency:
The negroes of Africa were not likely
fore, the provision concerning them was
| merely a harmless piece of legislative
buncombe, while the Indian and the
Chinaman were in our midst, and at our
doors and only too willing to assume
the mantle Of American sovereignty,
which we ostentatiously offered to the
African, but denied to them.
( "The conclusion being that an In
dian is not white person within the
purview of the naturalization laws, the
question arises, what is the status in
this respect of the petitioner, who is a
person of one-half Indian blood2 In
Louisiana, if the proportion of African
blood did not exceed one-eighth, the
person was deemed white; and this was
/ the rule in the colonial code noir of
France, and approved in Carolina.
''In Ohio it has been held that per-
son nearer white than black or red was
a white person, within the provision of
the State constitution of 1902 limiting
the privilege of voting to the white
1 male inhabitants etc; but that where
the colored blood was equal to or pre-
ponderated over the white blood, the
person was not white.
THE LINE OF RACE DIVISION.
"1n Jeffries V. Ankeny, it was held
that the offspring of q white man and
a half-breed Indian woman was a voter;
! that all nearer white than black, or of
the grade between the mulattoes and
the whites, were entitled to enjoy every
political and social privilege of the
white citizen
"Upon these authorities, and none
other have come under my observation,
the petitioner is not entitled to be con-
sidered a white man. AS a matter of
fact, he is as much an Indian as a white
person, and might be classed with the
one race as properly as the other. Strict
ly speaking, he belongs to neither.
I "The power to say when and under
what circumstances aliens may become
| American citizens belongs to Congress.
/ Citizenship is a privilege which no one
has right to demand; and in con-
STRUNG the acts of Congress upon the
subject of naturalization, the courts
ought not to go beyond what is plainly
written.
l 'The petitioner is not white per
SON. in fact, nor can he be so consider
ed upon any reasonable construction of
the statute, or within any rule that has
ever been promulgated on the subject
! The application is denied.'
THE CASE OF SAITO.
The next case on the subject wal
, decided by Circuit Judge Colt in the
United States Circuit Court for the
, District of Massachusetts. This was OIL
the application of Shebata Saito. Judg,
Colt, after quoting the naturalization
act, says: "The Japanese, like tn,
Chinese, belong to the Mongolian race
and the question presented is whethe
they are included within the tern
white persons.
"These words were incorporated il
the naturalization laws as early as 1902
AT that time the country was inhab
tied by three races-the Caucasian, o
white race; the negro, or black race
and the American, or red race. 1t il
reasonable, therefore, to infer tha
when Congress, in designating the clas
= = of persons who could be naturalized
: inserted the qualifying word white,
it intended to exclude from the priv
lege of citizenship all alien races ex
cept the Caucasian.
''But we are not without more di
! rect evidence Of legitimate intent. j
1870, after the adoption of the thir
teenth amendment to the Constitution
: prohibiting slavery, and the fourteent
, amendment declaring who shall be citi
: zens, the question of extending tn
privilege of citizenship to all races o
aliens came before Congress for con
sideration. At that time, Charlie
S Sumner proposed to strike out the wor
e white from the statute; and in tn
g long debate that followed, the argu
I ment on the part of the oppositio
was that this change would permit tn
!. Chinese (and therefore the JapaneRs
to become naturalized citizens, and tn
| reply of those who favored the amend
ment was that this was the very pun
pose of the proposed amendment Tn
], amendment was finally rejected an
!, the present provision substituted, eS
1 tending the naturalization laws to tn
African race.
y CONGRESSIONAL INTENT.
. "Again, in the first revision of til
q statutes, in 1873, the words being FIRE
a white persons We're omitted, probabl
a through inadvertence Under the AZ
4 of February is, 1875, to correct errol
!. and supply omissions in the first rav
!. sion, this section of the statute wa
!. amended by inserting or restorin
"a these words. In moving to ADOPT tn
Il amendment in the House, it was stat,
% that this omission operated 20 exter
10 naturalization to all classes of alien
and especially to the Asiatics; and re
RS erence was made to the fact that
t, few years before, the proposition
10 Mr., Sumner, in the Senate, to stril
out the word white, had been defeate
lg and that the committee only propos'
be by restoring those words to place Il
a. law where it stood at the time of Il
" revision. The debate which follow,