Melville Fuller

“ We are of opinion that James E. Boyd is entitled to claim that, if his father did not complete his naturalization before his son had attained majority, the son cannot be held to have lost the inchoate status he had acquired by the declaration of intention, and to have elected to become the subject of a foreign power, but, on the contrary, that the oaths he took and his action as a citizen entitled him to insist upon the benefit of his father's act, and placed him in the same category as his father would have occupied if he had emigrated to the territory of Nebraska ”

“ It is true that naturalization under the acts of congress known as the 'Naturalization Laws' can only be completed before a court, and that the usual proof of naturalization is a copy of the record of the court. ”

“ Congress having the power to deal with the people of the territories in view of the future states to be formed from them, there can be no doubt that in the admission of a state a collective naturalization may be effected in accordance with the intention of congress and the people applying for admission. ”

“ The policy which sought the development of the country by inviting to participation in all the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizenship those who would engage in the labors and endure the trials of frontier life, which has so vastly contributed to the unexampled progress of the nation, justifies the application of a liberal, rather than a technical, rule in the solution of the question before us. ”

“ Naturalization is the act of adopting a foreigner, and clothing him with the privileges of a native citizen, and relator's position is that such adoption has neither been sought nor obtained by respondent under the acts of congress in that behalf. ”

“ British subjects who resided at Detroit before and at the time of the evacuation of the territory of Michigan, and who continued to reside there afterwards, without at any time prior to the expiration of one year from such evacuation declaring their intention of becoming British subjects, became ipso facto, to all intents and purposes, American citizens. ”

“ The argument of the report in support of the position that 'no principle has been more repeatedly announced by the judicial tribunals of the country, and more constantly acted upon, than that the leaning, in questions of citizenship, should always be in favor of the claimant of it,' and that liberality of interpretation should be applied to such a treaty, is well worthy of perusal. ”

“ Stein, 13 Neb. 529, 14 N. W. Rep. 481, it was held that, where the state at large was interested in a proceeding in quo warranto, the attorney general was, as at common law, the proper person to institute it, but when the information was filed by an individual to oust the incumbent from an office and install the relator therein, it was a personal remedy on behalf of the individual claiming to be aggrieved, and the state was but a nominal party. ”

“ On the 12th of March, 1891, the cause was heard upon the demurrer, and on the 5th of May of that year the court announced its opinion, (two of the three judges concurring and one dissenting,) and entered judgment of ouster as against respondent and reinstating the ralator in asid office. On the same day a writ was issued in accordance with said judgment, and the relator put into possession of said office in place of the respondent. The opinions will be found reported, in advance of the official series, in 48 N. W. Rep. ”