Speech #440056258

This feature of allowing the l)epartment of State to officiate in the conferring of citizenship is another of the objectionable novelties of this bill and it is in direct conflict with the Constitution of the United States. which places the exclusive power of conferring citizenship. and prescribing the terms and conditions upon which it shall be conferred. in Congress alone. Another noticeable feature of the bill in the enumeration of persons entitled to protection as American citizens is its total omission of ladies of foreign birth who have married American citizens. The act of 1855 (section 1994 of the Revised Statutes) provides that any woman who is now or may hereafter he married to a citizen of the United States. and who might herself be lawfully naturalized. shall be deemed a citizen of theJnited States. This law makes an alien woman who marries a citizen of the United States a citizen also. Her marriage naturalizes her. and makes her as much a citizen as if she were a nativeborn. Bit this bill. while undertaking to define wh are American citizens and entitled to the protection of the United States. totally ignores these ladies. who under existing law are as fully entitled to the character and protection of American citizens as any other class of citizens. That part of the bil which deprives of American citizenship native or naturalized citizens who enter into the civil. military. or naval service of any foreign prince. or people. or state. while such service continues. or who are naturalized as subjects or citizens of a foreign state. is right. and is the only part of. the bill which is worthy of support. The substitute of the gentleman from New York embraces this feature of the bill. and cuts off all the other crude and nonAmericanlike matter which the bill seeks to have enacted into law. There is one defect.