Speech #540072683

I was going on to say that I had always supposed that a naturalized person was not a citizen of the United States until he had received his second papers. and while the bill. when it came before the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. provided. in terms similar to those used by the Senate. that citizens should have taken out the second papers. members of the committee thought that it showed more intelligence and better knowledge of the law if the House expressed itself by the term "citizens of the United States." So that change got into the bill after it was originally introduced. and the term made use of was "citizens of the United States." Since that time the bill has gone to the Senate. and I suppose those of us who think we understand the law. and that a citizen of the United Statesa naturalized citizenwas one who had taken out his second papers. shall either have to revise that opinion on further instruction from the grave and reverend gentlemen who shall constitute the conference committee on the part of the other House and accept their construction of the term as embodied in their amendment. unless. possibly. we may be able to convince them by a long constitutional argument that the term "citizen.".as applied to a naturalized citizen. includes only a citizen who had received his second papers.