Speech #440056258

Whei it has crowned you with the sovereign. royalty of its citizenship it does not chain you down is a serf to the soil. It does not degrade in the act of ennobling or belittle while making you great. But this bill. following the example of the ignoble surrender made of our German naturalized citizens by the treatyof 1868. comes in. a hundred years after the banners of libertyhave been set afloat over the vast plains and theimajestic mountains of our country. a hundred years after the nighty spirit of the Constitution has been abroad through the land. educating. enlarging. and elevating the aspirations of the people to a broader. higher. and more generous nationality than ever animated the hearts of any other peoplethis bill conies into the American Congress and in feeble and degenerate breath attempts to paralyze the powers of the Constitution and confine its protection to those citizens who remain at home and need it least. By this bill. if a native orutturalized citizen goes abroad and fails to undergo the inquisitorial process prescribed and remains two years in any foreign country. he forfeits all claim to the protecting power of the United States. American citizenship is made to depend not upon the plain and solid language of the Constitntion hut upon the uncertain and irreconcilable opinions of the officials of the foreign country as to what constitutes residence or domicile.