It will be observed that the statute says that an alien may be admitted to be a citizen of the United States "in the following manner and not otherwise." and furthermore it says the proceedings shall be recorded. Congress was especially carefal to guard this by providing that the proceedings should be recorded in a court of record having commonlaw jurisdiction and a clerk and a seal. Then the question arises. what confers naturalization? In my judgment it is the record of the court which confcrs naturalization on the foreigner admitted to citizenship. the proceedings required by the statute culminating in a judgment of the court. An alien admitted to citizenship in the United States is a creature of the law. a mere prodnct of the statute. different from the native. for the native is born. not made. and the naturalized alien is made. not born. and has to bring himself strictly. in my judgment. within the essential provisions of the statute. There is a case remarkably similar to this. the case of Dryden vs. Swinburne. in 20 West Virginia Reports. Swinburne in that case had filed his declaration of intention in 1856. and claimed tat lie was naturalized in 1858. The record. which was inspected. discloses that lie was not naturalized at all. exactly as in this case. Therecord showed. said the judge. no proceedings of that kind. Then Swinburc said. "I can establish it by parol." and the court held as I shall now read from page 121: If the record of this court at the time when it is claimed that an alien was thus admitted to citizenship is produced. and shows that tie was not only not so admitted but not admitted at all. how can any parol evidence on any conceivablc legal principle be admitted to prove a fiact which it is conclusively shown can not possibly exist?
Keywords matched
naturalized naturalization