Speech #460008839

Mr. Chairman. after due consideration and reflec- naturalization. but I contend that such objections to judicial protion I have come to look upon the repeal of this law as an absolute ceedings or doubts in the legality of documents issued thereunder necessity. demanded alike by reasons of justice and policy. My ob- must be argued in due form of law before the courts. and that any jections to it are not of a political nature. but none the less deserv- attempt to make the holder of such official decrees suffer for such ing of the most careful attention and approval of all who believe in doubts. without previous judicial inquiries. must he denounced as a equality before the law and have preserved a due respect for the fun- highhanded. unwarrantable. and unjustifiable proceeding. damental principles of our republican institutions. One cannot point Whenever the principle of individual rights. as secured by constito a more striking contrast. a greater variance. between the alleged tutional guarantees. is surrendered to measures of temporary emerobjectsof the law and its practical consequences. between the avowed gency or for party advantage. no matter how well meant such Incaspurpose of any measure and its real results. than this law presents. ores might be. then there is no telling where the encroachment upon Enacted. as its very title claims. "to enforce the rights of citizens those rights will stop of the United States to vote." this very law has served as a cloak for A XI WAY oF OrISPEN INo JUSTICE. disfranchising a large class of voters by the very officers to whom its To question the validity of naturalization papers issued by State faithful execution has been intrusted. courts in proper form and under their seal. not by proceedings in E.NFOUcEMiiNT wrTH A VEnEAxC court to set them aside. but by arresting the citizen possessing such There has never been a greater conflict between the declared inten- a paper and compelling him to prove his innocence of any fraud in tion of a law and the facts resulting front its execution. there could obtaining it. or its validity as a judicial document. is so novel a be no wider. astonishing discrepancy between word and deed than is method in our administration of justice that I am in charity disposed presented to us by the practical workings. the appliance of this law to believe that the officers who assumed the authority for introducing and its effects upon naturalized citizens in thelargest cityof the Union such innovations would have shrunk from the responsibility attendduring the past seven years. No fairminded. impartial observer can ant Upon their remarkable action had they been fully cognizant of fail to look with surprise and justifiable apprehension upon the arbi- its logical consequences. trary. excessive. and unconstitutional powers which officers of the Under this new dispensation of justice we were compelled to wit Government appointed under this law have arrogated to themselves. ness in New York the singular spectacle of an officer. backed by the Instead of protecting the citizen. officers of election. who owe their authority of the United States. demanding and obtaining the surrenofficial existence to the enactment oI this law. deprived thousands of der of certificates of naturalization on the part of citizens who had inoffensive citizens of the documentary evidence of their citizenship complied. so far as they could. with the law under which they were under threats of criminal prosecution. and thus rendered worthless to entitled to themnot because any court had decided these certifithem the boon of citizenship. conferred upon them in legal form by cates to be illegal and void. but because this presumptuous officer the courts of their State and accepted by them in good faith. with took it for granted that they were not properly obtained. and because all its obligations as well as all the privileges implied in the act of he was vested with sufficient authority to give these citizens of New naturalization. York the full benefit of his opinion! I do not hesitate to brand this unprecedented assault upon the If it were not for the grounds afforded by this law. which would rights of the naturalized citizen. as committedby the chief supervisor cover almost anything done by election officers under its provisions. of elections in Now York upon legal voters of that city. as one of the I should be at a loss to harmonize such strange doings with what has greatest outrages ever planned and executed in this country under heretofore been considered good law upon the subject of certificltes cover of law I Such an unblushing violation of a most important of naturalization and the rights acquired under them. I could step provision of our fundamental law. which grants security against un- into the ranks of the very advocates and administrators of the law reasonable seizures to the persons and papers of our citizens. should as it now stands for my authority in asserting that these doings in not be permitted to escape the severest censure. and I would be dere- New York are in striking contrast with the decisions of the best anliot in my duty to the people who sent mo here did I fail to charac- tiorities "pon the laws of naturalization and election. From the terize these highhanded proceedings as the crowning infamy of any mass of opinions of prominent writers upon this subject I will quote ever perpetrated under pretext of law! but one excellent autlority. Hon.