Will anybody say that is a record or any part of a record? A United States circuit judge. now an honored member of the Supreme bench. Justice Blatchford. decided the naturalization was proved on such a certificate of naturalization as the one in this case. or substantially so. And he further declares that the act of the clerk commanded by the statute is to be not only considered ministerial but merely directory. and if directory. of course everybody will acknowledge that the failure to make a record can not invalidate any naturalization. It is an act. says the court. the applicant has nothing to do with. It is separated from the man himself. It is directory and the clerk may neglect to write it down. It does not invalidate the naturalization it the certificate is issued. Citizenship is a personal right. which. once acquired. can only be taken away by the act of the citizen himself. Now I come to this question of record. As I said awhile ago. this certificate really was what it purports to be. an original document. issuing out of the court as a commission of citizenship. The record usually kept in the Western and Northern States. where there are a large number of people to be naturalized. is always almost exclusively another copy of the same oath without anything else on it. As suggested by my friend from Texas [Mlr. MooRE]. it is a blank taken otl of a book of blanksone blank torn out of a book of blanks.
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naturalized naturalization