Speech #430045342

He will have ai opportunity hereafter to correct me. aud no doubt will do it with aithoritg. I will not waste the time of the Iloso or space in. thI eRECORD) in calling to the misds of memlers tIe clause cited about offenses coumitted prior to tio arrivrt inthiseorutry of the naturalizad citizen. It may isclude the evasion of military duty. or it usay go further. n(l. as I have said. conviction may be obtained for the mre act of emigration. Leaving all these considerations aside. as they would curry me too far. I am constrained to ask if these provisions do not make a very decided. unjust. injurious. and wholly nnAmerican distinction between native and naturalized citizens. and agaminst the latter? is not the inference pardonable that the sole purpose of this bill is to curtail the rights of naturalized citizens tarrying abroad? Can such an inference be hid by the addition of a few. general clauses ? What need is there for such legislation ? Has the American Republie grown so weak that it mst in the ninetyeighti year of its exist once. by a pislie act of Congress. declare its inability and even aversion to protect those of its citizens who for two years remain away Iron its soil? Does not this sort of legislation oppose the spirit that speaks through the act of 181587 Is it not contrary to the spirit that prompted the naturalization laws from the beginning of our G overmeat I What the true intent is of these laws. even of those enacted under the administration of the elder Adams and repeated by the art of 1802. no one has better or more forcibly expressed than General Cass as Secretary of State. in his letter of iastructions to Governor Joseph Wright. Amerincan minister to Prussia. That letter is duned July 8. 1859i and in it the veteran American statesinum and diplomatist said: The moment a foreionerbecomes naturalized his allegiance to his native coitry is severed forever. lleexperiences aniv political birth. Albroadari ilhamssalho line separates iiil fromi his ntivo coontry. Should he erar to hisiativo esOiitry ie returns as an American citizen su in ino other character. The last sentence states broadly as well as most concisely tise true American doctrine. which was referred to as such by Lord Teuiterden in his Memorandunm on Naturalization and Allegiance. issued from the British foreign office in March. 1868. Judge Black. than whom no better interpreter of international law ever acted as AttorneyGeneral of tie United States. expressed himself u an official opinion with equal clearness in detlining tie moaning of naturalization. 11 it its jOlular etymological and legal sense." he wrote. "it (natnraliz ttion) signifies the act of adopting a foreigner and clothing him with all tlie privileges of a native eiticen or subject." And this very same construction was adopted by a royal commission in Eigland. which had for its chief the Earl of Clareidoin. and inong its members such cisineit authorities aud writers as Sir R1. J. Phillimnore.