held, one year at least; that the oath of the applicant shall in no case be allowed to prove his residence; that no alien who shall be a native citizen, denizen or subject of any country, State or sovereign, with whom the United States shall be at war, at the time of his application, shall be then admitted to citizenship; and also permitting persons residing in the United States between the 29th January, 1795, and the 18th June, 1798, to become citizens; the fourth section relating to children of persons naturalized, the same as that of the third section of the act of 1795; and the second and third sections are as follows:

That in addition to the directions aforesaid, all free white persons, being aliens, who may arrive in the United States after the passing of this act, shall, in order to become citizens of the United States, make registry, and obtain certificates, in the following manner, to wit: every person desirous of being naturalized shall, if of the age of twentyone years, make report of himself; or if under the age of twenty-one years, or held in service, shall be reported by his parent, guardian, master or mistress, to the clerk of the District court of the district where such alien or aliens shall arrive, or to some other court of record of the United States, or of either of the territorial districts of the same, or of a particular State; and such report shall ascertain the name, birth-place, age, nation and allegiance of each alien, together with the country whence he or she migrated, and the place of his or her intended settlement; and it shall be the duty of such clerk, on receiving such report, to record the same in his office, and to grant to the person making such report, and to each individual concerned therein, whenever he shall be required, a certificate under his hand and seal of office, of such report and registry; and for receiving and registering each report of an individual or family, he shall receive fifty cents; and for each certificate granted pursuant to this act, to an individual or family, fifty cents; and such certificate shall be exhibited to the court by every alien who may arrive in the United States, after the passing of this act, on his application to be naturalized, as evidence of the time of his arrival within the United States.

And whereas, doubts have arisen whether certain courts of record in some of the States, are included within the description of District or Circuit courts:

Be it further enacted, That every court of record in any individual State, having common law jurisdiction, and a seal and clerk or prothonotary, shall be considered as a District court within the meaning of this act, and every alien who may have been naturalized in any such court, shall enjoy, from and after the passing of the act, the same rights and privileges, as if he had been naturalized in a District or Circuit court of the United States.

A supplementary act to that of 1802 was passed March 26, 1804, providing for certain aliens to become citizens of the United States, who resided in the country between the 18th of June, 1798, and the 14th of April, 1802; and also for widows and children of aliens who had died. after having complied with certain directions of the act of 1802. On the 3d of March, 1813, an act was passed requiring a continued residence of five years immediately preceding to the admission of citizenship, which was repealed by an act passed June 26, 1848. By an act of July 30, 1813, persons who bad declared their intention of becoming citizens,

according to law, on the 18th June, 1812, were authorized to be admitted. On the 26th March, 1816, another act was passed, as follows:

That the certificate of report and registry, required as evidence of the time of arrival in the United States, according to the second section of the act of the fourteenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and two, entitled "An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the act heretofore passed on this subject;" and also a certificate from the proper clerk or prothonotary, of the declaration of intention, made before a court of record, and required as the first condition, according to the first section of said act, shall be exhibited by every alien on his application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, in pursuance of said act, who shall have arrived within the limits, and under the jurisdiction of the United States, since the eighteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and shall each be recited at full length, in the record of the court admitting such alien; otherwise he shall not be deemed to have complied with the conditions requisite for becoming a citizen of the United States, and any pretended admission of an alien, who shall have arrived within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, since the said eighteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, to be a citizen after the promulgation of this act, without such recital of each certificate at full length, shall be of no validity or effect under the act aforesaid. That nothing herein contained shall be construed to exclude from admission to citizenship, any free white person who was residing within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States at any time between the eighteenth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, and the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and two, and who, having continued to reside therein without having made any declaration of intention before a court of record as aforesaid, may be entitled to become a citizen of the United States according to the act of the twenty-sixth of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the act heretofore passed on that subject."'" Whenever any person without a certificate of such declaration of intention, as aforesaid, shall make application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the court, that the applicant was residing within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, oefore the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and two, and has continued to reside within the same, or he shall not be so admitted. And the residence of the applicant within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for at least five years immediately preceding the time of such application, shall be proved by the oath or affirmation of citizens of the United States, which citizens shall be named in the record as witnesses. And such continued residence within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, when satisfactorily proved, and the place or places where the applicant has resided for at least five years, as aforesaid, shall be stated and set forth, together with the names of such citizens in the record of the court admitting the applicant. Otherwise the same shall not entitle him to be considered and deemed a citizen of the United States.

Approved March 22, 1816.

Another act was passed May 26, 1824, as follows:

That any alien, being a free white person and a minor, under the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in the United States three years next preceding his arrival at the age of twenty-one, and who shall have continued to reside therein to the time he

may make application to be admitted a citizen thereof, may, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, and after he shall have resided five years within the United States, including the three years of his minority, be admitted a citizen of the United States, without having made the declaration required in the first condition of the first section of the act to which this is an addition, three years previous to his admission; Provided, such alien shall make the declaration required therein at the time of his or her admission; and shall further declare, on oath, and prove to the satisfaction of the court, that, for three years next preceding, it has been the bona fide intention of such alien to become a citizen of the United States; and shall, in all other respects, comply with the laws in regard to naturalization.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That no certificates of citizenship of naturalization, heretofore obtained from any court of record within the United States, shall be deemed invalid, in consequence of an omission to comply with the requisition of the first section of the act entitled "An act relative to evidence in cases of naturalization," passed the twenty-second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the declaration required by the first condition specified in the first section of the act, to which this is an addition, shall, if the same has been bona fide made before the clerks of either of the courts in the said condition named, be as valid as if it had been made before the said courts, respectively.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That a declaration by any alien, being a free white person, of his intended application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, made in the manner and form prescribed in the first condition specified in the first section of the act to which this is an addition, two years before his admission, shall be a sufficient compliance with said condition; any thing in the said act, or in any subsequent act, to the contrary notwithstanding.

In 1828, another act was passed, the passage of which was urged by James Buchanan, who said :

The existing laws require, in addition to these provisions, that the alien should produce a certificate that he had gone before a court of record, and registered himself; and this certificate is to be the evidence of the time of his arrival within the United States. The act of the 22d of March, 1816, further requires, that this certificate of registry shall be recited in the certificate of naturalization. What has been the consequence? By a correct construction of these laws, no alien can be naturalized without a registry. This is the only evidence which the court can legally receive of the time of his arrival. In those courts, therefore, in which this practice prevails, if an alien has been ten years in this country, though his residence were notorious during all that time, still, if he has neglected to register himself, he cannot be naturalized until five years after his first application to the court. This neglect is common, nay, almost universal; because aliens do not know the law, and would not, for some time after their arrival, conform to it, even if they did. But this law, like every other unreasonable one, is evaded. It sets up an arbitrary standard of evidence, to defeat the spirit of its own provisions. The consequence is that some courts do, and others do not, carry this part of it into execution. In 1824, Congress yielded this provision so far as to declare, that a certificate of naturalization, theretofore obtained, should be good, notwithstanding it did not recite this registry. The Committee on the Judiciary believed that it would be better at once to dispense with this registry. They thought it would simplify the law. The second section provides for another class of cases. Every alien who has arrived in this country, since the 14th of April, 1802, must exhibit a certificate of the declaration of his inten

tion to become a citizen, made two years before his application to be naturalized. It was believed by the committee, that, if an alien could establish, by clear and indifferent testimony, that he had arrived in the country previous to the late war, (viz., the 18th June, 1812,) and continued to reside in it ever since, this condition might, in such case, with propriety, be dispensed with. We had reason to believe that there were many persons in the country, particularly Irishmen, who served as soldiers during the late war, who have hitherto neglected to make a declaration of their intention to become citizens; and we thought it right to provide for this class of cases, more especially as such persons must prove, by clear and indifferent testimony, that they have since resided within the United States. It is now nearly sixteen years since the declaration of war.

The act was approved May 24, 1828. It repealed the second section of the act of April 14, 1802, and the first section of the act of 22d March, 1816, and provided further, as follows:

That any alien, being a free white person, who has resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, between the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and two, and the eighteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and who has continued to reside within the same, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, without having made any previous declaration of his intention to become a citizen: Provided, That whenever any person, without a certificate of such declaration of his intention, shall make application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the court, that the applicant was residing within the limits, and under the jurisdiction of the United States, before the 18th day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and has continued to reside within the same, or he shall not be so admitted; and the residence of the applicant within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, for at least five years immediately preceding the time of such application, shall be proved by the oath or affirmation of citizens of the United States, which citizens shall be named in the record as witnesses; and such continued residence within the limits, and under the jurisdiction of the United States, when satisfactorily proved, and the place or places where the applicant has resided for at least five years, as aforesaid, shall be stated and set forth, together with the names of such citizens, in the record of the court admitting the applicant; otherwise, the same shall not entitle him to be considered and deemed a citizen of the United States.

To meet a supposed defect in the act of 1802, an act was passed, February 10, 1855, providing that persons born, or hereafter to be born out of the United States, whose fathers were or shall be, at the time of their birth, citizens of the United States, shall be deemed citizens, but that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers never resided in the United States; and also that a woman, who might be naturalized under existing laws, who is married, or who shall be married, to a citizen, shall be deemed a citizen.

There have been, also, several cases of collective naturalization. By the third article of the first Convention of April 30, 1800, with France, for the cession of Louisiana, it is provided that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States,

and admitted, as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States. U. S. Laws, vol. viii., p. 202. A provision to the same effect is to be found in the sixth article of the treaty of 1819, with Spain, for the purchase of the Floridas. Ibid., p. 256. By the eighth article of the treaty of 1848, with Mexico, those Mexicans who remained in the territories ceded, and who did not declare their intention, within one year, to continue Mexican citizens, were to be deemed citizens of the United States. Ibid., vol. ix., p. 930. By the annexation of Texas, under a resolution of Congress, and its admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, all the citizens of the former republic became citizens of the United States. Ibid., vol. v., p. 798; vol. ix., p. 108.

CHAPTER XX.

EFFORTS TO AMEND NATURALIZATION LAWS.

DURING the second session of the twenty-fifth Congress, several memorials were presented in the House of Representatives, praying Congress to pass an act repealing the naturalization laws then in force, or so to modify them as to secure more effectually to the native citizens the right of government, among which was one presented by John M. Patton, of Virginia, from the Native American Association of Washington city, signed by nearly a thousand persons. See Congressional Globe, 1837–8, p. 187. At the same session, a Select Committee was appointed on the subject, of which David Russell, of New York, was made chairman ; and he, as chairman, reported a bill, at the close of the session, to amend the naturalization laws, which was read twice and committed, and no further action was had thereon. See Congressional Globe, 1837-8, p. 489. Nor was the bill considered or acted on during the third session of that Congress, though a memorial was presented by Henry Johnson, of Louisiana, signed by several thousand citizens of that State, soliciting the entire repeal of the acts providing for the naturalization of foreigners, which was ordered to be printed, and referred to the Committee' of the Whole on the State of the Union. Congressional Globe, 1838-9, p. 178.

At the first session of the twenty-sixth Congress, Augustus C. Hand, of New York, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives, to