Speech #810322129

It is as follows: I hereby declare. on oath. that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all alleglance and fidelity to any foreign prince. potentate. state. or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen. that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies. foreign and domestic. that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. so help me God. In acknowledgment whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature. As early as 1790. in the first naturalization law. the alien was required to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. Every subsequent law has contained this provision in one form or another. Since 1923 the application form for naturalization has contained the following question: "If necessary. are you willing to take up arms in defense of this country?" The first case which laid down the rule that an alien who refused to promise to bear arms in defense of the United States if called upon to do so could not be naturalized was United States versus Schwim. mer. The applicant. Mrs. Schwimmer. aged 49 at the time. was an immigrant from Hungary. She was a woman of wide learning and general culture. by profession a writer and lecturer. She came to the United States in 1921. declared her intention to become an American citizen in November 1922. and filed a naturalization petition in September 1926. She was willing to take the oath of allegiance. but when asked whether. if necessary. she was willing to take up arms in defense of the United States. she answered: "I would not take up arms personally." The Naturalization Act of 1906. then in effect. provided: Ie (the applicant) shall. before he is admitted to citizenship. declare on oath in open court * * * that he will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies. foreign and domestic. and bear true faith and allegiance to the sameAnd furtherIt shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Court * * * that during the time (at least 5 years preceding the application) he has behaved as a man of good moral character. attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States. and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same. The two principal grounds of the Courts decision against Mrs. Schwimmer were. first. that Mrs. Schwimmer had not established that she was attached to the principles of the Constitution and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States. and second. that she could not take an unqualified oath of allegiance. The central idea of the decision was not so much that the oath of allegiance included or implied an obligation to bear arms. but that the beliefs of conscientious objectors evidence a want of that attachment to the principles of the Constitution of which the applicant is required to give affirmative evidence by the Naturalization Act. The Schwimmer case was followed 2 years later by United States against MacIntosh. This case was decided principally upon authority of the Schwimmer case. although there are distinguishing features.