Speech #440033549

We claim. indeed. to have been the first nationcrtainly in modern timesto have recognized this principle in practice. and while many of our most eminent and distinguished jnrists. trammeled by the feudal principles derived from the common law of England. have maintained the doctrine of perpetual allegiance. yet from the earliest history of this Government the executive dopartment in its intercourse with foreign nations has maintained the doctrine of expatriation. and the question is now forever set at rest by an act of Congress pased in July. 186S. declaring it a fundamental doctrine of this Govclrnmnt. It will therefore be found that this bill. so far from conflicting with that recognized doctrine. if liable to any objection on that scor at all. is subject to the charge of too great facility in enabling American citizens to throw off their national character. Again. sir. this bill makes no distinction of any khd between nativeborn and naturalized citizens. It places them all upon the same footing of perfect equality which the Constitution. laws. and policy of tbis country designed that they should occupy. and we adopt in its fullest extent the principle embraced in the act of July 27. 1868. that all naturalized citizens of the United States. while.in foreign states. shall be entitled to and shall receive from this Government the same protection of persons and property that is accorded to nativeborn citizens in like situations and circumstances. Again. sir. this bill in defining citizenship does not propose to affect in any manner the rights of inheritance or succession to real or personal proluerty in any State. but leaves those questions to be determined by the law regulating such subjects in the several States. The main and leading purpose of this bill is to prescribe the law by which the personal rights of American citizens may be ascertained and determined in foreign contries. and to furnish our ministers and consuls abroad the rules by which they shall be governed in determining the status and personal rights of those citizens when called upon in the discharge of tire delicate duty which so often devolves ipon them of vindicating and protecting those rights by the power of this Government.