United States citizen

“ That the Democracy of the United States recognize it as the imperative duty of this government to protect the naturalized citizen in all his rights, whether at home or in foreign lands, to the same extent as its native-born citizens. ”

“ The words 'people of the United States' and 'citizens' are synonymous terms, and mean the same thing; they both describe the political body, who, according to our republican institutions, form the sovereignty, and who hold the power and conduct the Government through their representatives. They are what we familiarly call the sovereign people, and every citizen is one of this people, and a constituent member of this sovereignty. ”

“ Incited by their memories to high aims for the good of our country and mankind, and looking to the future with unfaltering courage, hope, and purpose, we, the representatives of the party in national convention assembled, make the following declaration of principles:
1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league. By the combined workings of the national and State governments, under their respective Constitutions, the rights of every citizen are secured, at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted. ”

“ I assume that in this demonstration you are evidencing your loyalty and fidelity to the Government of which we are all citizens.
You welcome me as one who, for the time being by your choice, is charged with the execution of the law. It is a great thing to be a citizen of this country, and the privilege has its corresponding obligations. ”

“ The kind of society our Constitution has created-free and fair and reformable-helps to explain the desire of many foreign nationals to become United States citizens. Last year, over a quarter of a million people, more than ever before in a single year, took the oath of United States citizenship. ”

“ Unquestionably, in the general and common acceptation, a citizen of the state is considered as synonomous with citizen of the United States, and the one is therefore treated as expressive of the other. ”

“ It is, therefore, my duty, as a good American citizen, to help form public opinion in the community in which I live in order that all citizens may hold intelligent, just, and humane views on governmental questions and endeavor to have such views embodied in our laws. ”

“ Thus these original grants, the First Article grants of enumerated power to interfere with the individual freedom of the American citizen, will be made simultaneously by the majority of Americans in every state where Americans become citizens.
But, once these early Americans leave those first “conventions,” the whole American people will constitute the members or citizens of the new nation, America.
The people of these United States constitute one nation. They have a government in which all of them are deeply interested. ”

“ The citizen of a State has the same fundamental rights as a citizen of the United States, and also certain others, local in their character, arising from his relation to the State, and in addition, those which belong to the citizen of the United States, he being in that relation also. ”

“ It is due to this Government itself and to the great mass of the naturalized citizens who entirely, both in name and in fact, become citizens of the United States that the high privilege of citizenship of the United States should not be held by fraud or in derogation of the laws and of the good name of every honest citizen. ”

“ Because he is a citizen of the United States, and that is one of the privileges of a citizen. Why may a colored citizen be admitted to the bar? Because he is a citizen, and that is one of the avocations open to every citizen; and no State can abridge his right to pursue it. ”

“ I threw myself back in my chair, amazed.
“Your Excellency, I am an American citizen.”
“So I have understood.”
“An American citizen is on a level with royalty.”
“That is admitted.”
“Even the Dowager Empress of China, when engaging me in her service, though she raised my ancestors to the rank of marquises, did not ask me to forego my citizenship of the United States.”
“That is not necessary,” the Privy Councillor protested.
“Explain yourself, if you will be so good.”
“A man may be an American citizen, although by birth he is a Frenchman, a German, or even a negro. ”

“ Subject and citizen are, in a degree, convertible terms as applied to natives, and though the term citizen seems to be appropriate to republican freemen, yet we are, equally with the inhabitants of all other countries, subjects, for we are equally bound by allegiance and subjection to the government and law of the land. ”

“ Those who choose to become citizens proudly welcome this responsibility. In fact, all of us would do well to emulate the zeal and interest shown by these newest Americans, who deeply appreciate their bond with the noble tradition of our Constitution. Therefore, on this occasion I call upon all Americans to consider the wonderful blessings of their United States citizenship and to look upon our Constitution and celebrate the freedom and protection that it has always afforded us. ”

“ I think I shall return to America even a better patriot than when I left it. A citizen of the United States travelling on the continent of Europe, finds the contrast between a government of power and a government of opinion forced upon him at every step. ”

“ Compare the strength of the national government to-day with its strength in the past.
28. Who are citizens according to the Constitution? Is a woman a citizen? Is a child a citizen? Are Indians citizens? Are foreigners residing in this country citizens? Are children born abroad of American parents citizens? Can one person be a citizen of two nations at the same time, or of two states, or of two towns? ”

“ Wherever you go your citizenship goes with you, protecting and defending you. If you are in a foreign country you must abide by the laws of that country, but should you be treated unjustly the United States would protect you.
Our country is a land of freedom and opportunity, and it is our duty to help uplift the government, and as citizens we must study conditions and know how to govern and be governed. ”

“ Every citizen or subject of another country, while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction, of the United States. ”

“ But after all has been done by the passage of laws, either Federal or State, to relieve a situation full of solicitude, much more remains to be accomplished by the reinstatement and cultivation of a true American sentiment which recognizes the equality of American citizenship. ”

“ I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, [43] and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. ”

“ The wisdom and justice of the American governments, and the virtue of the inhabitants, may, if they are not deficient in the improvement of their own advantages, render the United States of America an enviable example to all the world of peace, liberty, righteousness, and truth. ”

“ If this citizenship means anything, it means that we should be concerned about everything which makes for law, for order, for good government, for individual, municipal, state, and national purity and righteousness; it means that each one of us ought to be a living example of the best type of what a citizen ought to be. ”

“ It was never assumed in the United States that the citizen of a free country has a right to do whatever he pleases; on the contrary, social obligations were there imposed upon him more various than anywhere else. ”

“ Every year for more than three decades, we Americans have celebrated our constitutional rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States through the observance of Citizenship Day and Constitution Week. ”

“ We average Americans know and will remember the clear distinction, the substantial distinction, recognized by the great jurist, between “the people of America” and “the people of the several states,” although they happen to be the same human beings acting in different capacities, as members of different political societies of men. ”

“ Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must also exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. ”

“ The individual free to aspire and work, the community its own police officer and guardian.
We are here as American citizens, having, first, duties to our families, then to our neighborhood—to the institutions and business with which we are connected—but above all, and through and by all these duties, to our country and to God, by whose beneficial guidance our Government was founded, by whose favor and protection it has been preserved. ”

“ In every generation from the time this Government was founded men of foreign birth have stood in the very foremost rank of good citizenship, and that not merely in one but in every field of American activity ”

“ Now, the essence of citizenship is the exercise of political rights; the right to a voice in government, to say what shall be done with your taxes, and the right to express your own needs. If you are denied these rights you are not a citizen. ”

“ They have asserted the constitutional equality of each and all of the States of the Union as States: they have affirmed the constitutional equality of each and all of the citizens of the United States as citizens, whatever their religion, wherever their birth or their residence ”

“ My countrymen, this Government is that which I love to think of as my country; for not acres, or railroads, or farm products, or bulk meats, or Wall Street, or all combined, are the country that I love. It is the institution, the form of government, the frame of civil society, for which that flag stands, and which we love to-day. [Applause.] It is what Mr. Lincoln so tersely, yet so felicitously, described as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people; a government of the people, because they instituted it—the Constitution reads, [12] "We, the people, have ordained;" ”

“ In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of President of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizen. ”