In June or July. 1878. Mr. Davenport issued warrants for the purpose of compelling parties to come in and surrender the naturalization papers which they obtained in 186S. In August or September he asked the district attorney to publish a notice stating to these parties that there were cases of fraud in the naturalization papers issued in that year. and that parties who should come in and surrender their certifi. cates of naturalization would not be arrested. Thirtytwo hundred foreignborn citizens came in and gave up theirpapers to Davenportfor the purpose of avoidingarrest. Mr.Davenport.in one of his letters to the AttorneyGeneral. saidthat "by the most persistent and continued attacks upon such papers the arrest of hundreds of those who held them. the seizure of their papers. and other means I have succeeded in reducing the number in circulation in this county from about forty thousand to ten thousand." There is no doubt that he had succeeded in making thousands of these honest citizens of foreign birth surrender their naturalization papers obtained in good faith. and thereby depried them of their citizenship without authority of law. [Here the hammer fell.]
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naturalization