Why should these citizens have a mark of disparagement set upon them by any act or treaty of the United States I Yet such is the treaty referred to. that they alone of all classes of our citizens. if they visit the land of their birth to see their kindred or friends. to pursue business or pleasure. and remain there more than two years. are stripped of their American citizenship and American liberties and cast back to the relentless rule of the country which they had renounced. The Supreme Court says. (Osborne vs. Bank of United States. 9 Wheaton.) speaking of a naturalized citizen : He becomes a member of the society. possessing all the rights of a native citizen and standing in view of tho Constitution on the footing of a native. Yet in the face of tle Constitution. which proclaims the equal rights of all classes of citizens. native and naturalized. a republican Administration negotiated a treaty singling out the naturalized German citizen from all others and placing a mark of inferiority upon him. and agreeing to abandon him helpless and defenseless if he returned to his native country and remained over two years in it. This was contrary to the fair. just. and equal spirit of the Constitution. which knows no distinction of citizens and accompanies them all alike with its sheltering and protecting power at home and abroad. It is a grave question whether that treaty was not also contrary to the letter of the Constitution. which confers upom Congress the power of establishing a uniform system of naturalization. but nowhere gives to Congress or the treatymaking power any authority to discriminate between different classes of citizens or abridge or diminish the rights of oiie class lelow those of another. A treaty is the supreme law of the land. but there must be some fundamental limits as to the objects which fall within the scope of the treatymaking power. What all three branches of the Government have no power to accomplish. two of these branchesthe President and the Senateshould not in reason be competent to effect.
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naturalized naturalization