States.

One of the remedial measures which has been suggested is to withdraw the business of naturalization from the State courts.7

7 The New York Times of February 13, 1869, contains the following:

THE GERMANS AND THE NATURALIZATION LAWS.

The German republican central committee held a meeting last night at its headquarters, Steuben House, Bowery, General Sigel presiding. After the usual routine business, a delegation from the German republicans of Hudson county. N. J., with the object of co-operation in national questions, was received. The sub-committee, appointed to confer with a similar committee from the German Union democratic general committee concerning the amendment of the naturalization laws, was heard. The resolutions adopted by the joint committees were: Firstly, that the importance of immigration is manifest and should be duly appreciated. Secondly, that naturalization should be facilitated as much as possible, and the period fixed for the attainment of full citizenship shortened, and should not be intrusted exclusively to the United States courts. Thirdly, that the action of Congress in this matter deserves the support of the foreign-born citizens. These resolutions were unanimously adopted; also, that the same should be presented in a petition to Congress, that a mass meeting of all the German citizens in support of these steps should be called, and that the press be called upon to assist this movement. The action of the German republican central committee was cominunicated to the democratic committee, which adopted the above resolutions with a slight alteration.

The committee consists of Mr. Marcus Otterburg, Mr. Andreas Willmann, Dr. Hartwig Gucke, Dr. Hermann Muhr, Mr. Arnold Renson, republicans; Mr. Magnus Gross, Dr. W. Schirmer, Mr. H. Schroeder, Mr. Henry Scipt, Mr. W. Stark, democrats.

The number of emigrants coming to the United States from time to time from different countries varies very much. For many years Ireland sent a large proportion, and does yet. But other countries are now sending in also a tide of valuable population to add to our wealth, industry, and numbers.

In 1866 the alien emigrants arriving at New York city were 233,418, of which there were from different countries as follows:

Number and nativity of alien passengers arrived at the port of New York during the years 1866 and 1867, who were liable to bonds or commutation under the acts of the New York legislatures of April 11, 1849, July 11, 1851, April 13, 1853, and May 14, 1867.

See annual reports of the commissioners of emigration of the State of New York for the year ending December 31, 1866, and for the year ending December 31, 1867.

Number and destination of passengers during the year 1866.

States.

But this is not deemed advisable. Unless national courts are substi tuted equally accessible to applicants, the facilities for naturalization would be greatly abridged or rendered inconvenient and attended with unnecessary expense.

It has been proposed to confer jurisdiction of naturalization on registers in bankruptcy, and require them to hold terms for business in every county, to be paid by fees, and without compensation from the govern

ment.

In many localities the business would not justify such officers in holding terms in every county.

These officers may be as liable to err in judgment, or become faithless to duty, as the judges of the State courts.

Congress has power to control and subject to penalties State officers who consent to execute national laws as fully as officers created by national law. It will not do to withdraw all confidence from all State officers merely because some have been recreant to their trusts. When such recreancy becomes universal in State officers the only remedy will be to dispense with their existence.

Number and destination of passengers during the year 1866- Continued.

Totals...

10,861 6, 60814, 204 19, 478 39, 760 32, 183 2, 22 16, 438 14, 482 19, 597 17, 280 9, 638 228, 851

1

1

7

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A bill is reported in accordance with these views:

A BILL to amend the several acts relating to naturalization.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That any alien who shall have declared on oath or affirmation in any court authorized to admit aliens to become citizens of the United States that it was bona fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whatever, and particularly by name the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whereof such alien may at the time be a citizen or subject, shall be authorized to acquire, hold, own, use, and enjoy, by purchase or descent, any property, real or personal, and the same to dispose of, and transmit by inheritance in the same manner and as fully as citizens of the United States might or could lawfully do.8

SEC. 2. That every alien, before being admitted to be a citizen of the United States by any court having jurisdiction thereof, shall prove to the satisfaction of the court by at least one credible witness under oath, and by an oral examination in open court, the facts which are by law required to be proved, and of which the court must be satisfied, and in like manner by his own oath all said facts except that he has behaved as a person of good moral character, and he shall in like manner prove by his own oath as nearly as practicable his place of birth, age, time of arrival in the United States, and the place or places where he has resided since his arrival in the United States, with his present residence, specifying the number, street, and city, town, or village, if in a city, town, or village, and if not such other pertinent description of the locality of his resi

8 In Elmondorff vs. Carmichael, 3 Littell, Ky. R., 474, decided in 1823, it is gaid: From the authorites cited, and the investigation the court has made on this subject, the following general rules are discovered to have existed in the laws of England, at our separation from that country: First, That an alien may take land by purchase, and is clothed with the title; but he holds it for the use of the crown, and may be divested of it by an inquest of office found. This inquest, however, is absolutely necessary, before the title can be taken from him." Secondly, "That an alien cannot take a title by descent as he can by purchase, and in case the heir is an alien, the title is immediately vested in the crown, and no inquest is necessary for that purpose, although an office of instruction may be found. "

There can be no doubt that the Commonwealth of Virginia, when it assumed its republican character, succeeded to the rights and privileges of the crown of England, as to her own domain. And it is equally clear 'that she adopted the laws in force there at a certain period, so far as they were compatible with the genius and spirit of the new government and were not locally inapplicable, without inquiring into the policy of the foregoing principles or investigating the reasons which gave them birth. We have no doubt they were also adopted by Virginia at the Revolution, and composed part of her code, and ought to be adjudged to exist until altered by the legislature. This has been held to be true in New York with regard to that State, and is so decided with regard to Virginia, by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Fairfax's devisee vs. Hunter's lessee, 7 Cranch, 603. It is also decided in that case that a devisee is a purchaser within the meaning of the rule, and can and does take the estate devised to him,

But that a grantee from the crown, or government, would or could take an estate by patent, and hold it for the use of the government, is a point not so clear. There is considerable difference between him and the purchaser from an individual. The reasons which operate in the latter case are not as patent in favor of the former. Besides, many dieta in the English authorities are against it. See Bro. Abr., title Patent, 44; 7 Viner's Abr. title Prerogative, p. 78; 2 Black. Commentaries, 347, 348, and Tucker's note; Jacobs's Law Dictionary, under Grants from the Crown. There is, however, opposed to these authorities, the case of Craig et al. vs. Redford, 3 Wheat. 594, in the Supreme Court of the United States, precisely in point with the present. But this case is decided on the authority of the case of a devisee in Fairfax's devisee vs. Hunter's lessee, 7 Crunch, 603, supposing the case of, the devisee and that of a grantee from the State to be precisely parallel. Besides, the question does not appear in that court to have undergone the same minute investigation of authority, the mature deliberation, and the application of reason which usually characterize the decisions of that enlightened tribunal.

In White vs. White, 2 Metcalfe's Kentucky Reports, it was said, in 1859:

An alien can take lands by purchase, though not by descent, at common law; or, in other words, he can take by act of the party, but not by the act of the law. Lands acquired by purchase he can hold until divested of the title by inquest of office. (Elmondorf vs. Carmichael, 3 Littell, 474.) The consequence of this rule is that if he be naturalized before office found, his ut.e as purchaser becomes valid by relation, and it cannot thereafter be divested. This doctrine, however, es not apply to lands claimed by descent. Not being capable of taking by descent, he has no title to be .nfirmed by relation, and his subsequent naturalization cannot operate to invest him with the title which in the mean time vested elsewhere.

An alien who has made his declaration of intention to become a citizen is not thereby rendered capable of taking land by descent. (White vs. White, 2 Metcalfe's Kentucky Reports, 191; Hunt rs. Warnicke, Hardin Reports, 61.

dence as will identify the same; and the witness and applicant shall by their oaths prove that they are the identical persons they respectively purport and represent themselves to be, and they shall each take and subscribe an oath stating all said facts so required to be proved: Prorided, That the declaration required by the first condition of the act approved April 14, 1802, "to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the acts heretofore passed on that subject," shall not be required to be proved by the oath of the applicant or witness, but shall be proved by the record or certified copy thereof, and the person applying to be admitted a citizen shall prove by his own oath that he is the identical person who made said declaration and who is named and referred to therein.

And every witness shall in every case state on oath as aforesaid his residence in the same manner required of applicants to be admitted citizens.

No court or judge shall entertain the application of more than one person to be admitted to be a citizen at the same time, or receive evidence in support thereof.

And in every case where an alien is admitted to be a citizen, the court or judge so admitting him shall make an order accordingly, written or printed, attested by the signature of the judge and clerk of the court, or a lawful deputy, in open court, which signing shall be after the order is made by the court or judge, and all said proceedings shall be recorded by the clerk of said court, which record shall be signed by the judge and attested by the clerk or his deputy in open court; but it shall be a sufficient record to preserve among the files or rolls of said court said original proceedings, oaths so subscribed, and order attested by the sig nature of the judge and clerk on one sheet of paper, which proceedings may be partly printed and partly written.

And any person who has, or hereafter shall have, lawfully "renounced his naturalization in the United States," may again be admitted to be a citizen on the same terms, conditions, and subject to the same limitations provided in this act and the acts hereby amended.9

And the court, before admitting any alien to be a citizen, shall be satisfied by competent evidence of all the facts so required to be proved. The clerk of the court admitting any alien to be a citizen, or his lawful deputy, shall furnish to the applicant in person, at the time he may be admitted to become a citizen, a certificate showing that said applicant was admitted by said court to be a citizen, and the date thereof, which shall be under the seal of the court, attested by the clerk or his lawful deputy, and signed by a judge of said court before whom the proof was made, which signing shall be after the order in such case is made by the court or judge. And in case of the loss of such certificate a duplicate certificate may be granted, on proof by affidavit of the person so admitted to be a citizen of such loss, of his residence described as hereinbefore required, and that he is the identical person to whom the original was issued. Whenever a duplicate shall be required by any other person than the person admitted to be a citizen, the certificate shall show that fact, and shall not be evidence to entitle any person to vote except the children of such person so admitted, in cases where such children become citizens entitled to vote by reason of their parent being admitted to become a citizen.

In any court in which the duties of judge and clerk are or may be lawfully performed by the same person such judge and clerk may make and attest all orders, records, and certificates herein required.

* See Article IV of the treaty of May 27, 1868, between the United States and the King of Prussia.

SEC. 3. In all cases where any alien is admitted to be a citizen in any court not in the county of or nearest to the place of his residence, the reason why the application so to be admitted is not made in such court in or nearest to the county of the applicant's residence shall be shown by the oath of the applicant, to be reduced to writing and made part of the record; and a certified copy of the whole record and proceedings in such case shall forthwith be transmitted by the clerk of the court to the highest court of record of or in the county of such applicant's residence, and if there be no such court, then to the highest court of record nearest the residence of such applicant; all of which shall be shown by the oath of the applicant or other satisfactory evidence; and the clerk of the court to which such record and proceedings are transmitted shall file and preserve the same, and make a record of the name of the applicant and witnesses in the same manner required as to aliens admitted to be citizens in such court, together with the name of the court and the place where it was held.

SEC. 4. In all cases where any oath, affirmation, or affidavit shall be made or taken under or by virtue of this act or any of the acts hereby amended, and any person or persons shall, taking or making such oath, affirmation, or affidavit, knowingly swear or affirm falsely, the same shall be deemed and taken to be perjury, and the person or persons guilty thereof shall upon conviction thereof be liable to the punishment prescribed by the laws of the United States for perjury.

SEC. 5. That if any person applying to be admitted a citizen, or appearing as a witness for any such person, shall, knowingly, 1st, personate any other person than himself; or, 2d, falsely appear in the name of a deceased person, or in an assumed or fictitious name; or if any citizen born in the United States shall make application to any court to be admitted a citizen; 10 or if any judge or judges, holding or exercising the duties of such office under State authority; or if any clerk, or prothonotary of any court, deputy, assistant, or person performing the duties of such clerk, prothonotary, deputy, or assistant, shall knowingly, 1st, admit any alien or other person to be a citizen, guilty as hereinabove specified; or, 2d, make, sign, attest, or deliver to any such alien or person, or any person for him, any order, record, or certificate admitting, or purporting to admit, such alien or person to be a citizen; or, 3d, make, sign, or attest any order purporting to admit a person to be a citizen, but to, or in a fictitious or falsely assumed name, or in the name of a person not having made application and proof as herein required; or shall make, sign, attest, or deliver any certificate purporting to show that a person was admitted to be a citizen when the name purporting to be the name of such person is fictitious, or falsely assumed, or that of a person who has not made application and proof as herein required; or, if any person shall, 1st, falsely make, forge, or counterfeit any oath, affirmation, affidavit, certificate, order, record, signature, or other instrument, paper, or proceeding herein authorized or required, or authorized or required by any of the acts hereby amended; or, 2d, shall utter, sell, dispose of, or use as true or genuine, or for any unlawful purpose, any false, forged, or counterfeit oath, affirmation, affidavit, certificate, order, record, signature, instrument, paper, or proceeding, as aforesaid; or, 3d, sell or dispose of to any person other than the person for whom it was originally issued, any certificate of citizenship, or certificate showing any person to be admitted a citizen; or if any person shall in any manner use for the purpose of registering as a voter, or as evidence of a right to vote or

10 This has been done to enable citizens to register and vote more than once. Evidence, 3643.