Citizenship

“ That the Constitution itself has defined citizenship of the United States by declaring what persons, born within the several States, shall or shall not be citizens of the United States, will not be pretended. ”

“ Undoubtedly, as has already been said, it is a principle of public law, recognised by the Constitution itself, that birth on the soil of a country both creates the duties and confers the rights of citizenship. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Free from many of the dangers that surround the States of Europe, you have unequalled opportunities for showing what a high spirit of citizenship—zealous, intelligent, disinterested—may do for the happiness and dignity of a mighty nation, enabling it to become what its founders hoped it might be—a model for other peoples more lately emerged into the sunlight of freedom. ”

“ They made citizenship a privilege which came to a person only by birth, a privilege which he lost by removal to another city. Elsewhere he was only a foreigner without legal rights—a man without a country. ”

“ Such citizenship passes to the person, of whatever race, who is embraced by its provisions, leaving the fact of citizenship to be determined, when it shall become necessary to do so in the course of legal inquiry, in the same way that questions as to one's nativity, domicile, or residence are determined. ”

“ We accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. ”

“ But, further: though, as I shall presently more fully state, I do not think the enjoyment of the elective franchise essential to citizenship, there can be no doubt it is one of the chiefest attributes of citizenship under the American Constitutions; and the just and constitutional possession of this right is decisive evidence of citizenship. ”

“ The citizenship of a naturalized person has the same dignity and status as the citizenship of those of us born here, save only for eligibility to the Presidency. He is a member of a community included within the protection of all the guarantees of the Constitution. ”

“ English law claims as subjects all who are born within the dominions of the Crown, regardless of their descent; while French law, on the contrary, attaches French citizenship to French blood and descent, regardless in general of the place of birth. [102] Viewed, however, in respect of its 103historical origin and primitive form, we may say that citizenship has its source in nationality. Fellow citizens are those who belong not merely to the same state but also to the same nation. ”

“ Here they have opportunities such as have existed never before, nor in any other country, for trying to inspire the nation with a love of truth and honour, with a sense of the high obligations of citizenship, and especially of those who hold public office. ”

“ We are citizens of this great Republic: and citizenship is a sacred thing: I hope we realize it. It is a thing to be prized; to be highly esteemed. It has come to us after 250 years of slavery, of unrequited toil ”

“ This desecration of American citizenship cannot exist side by side with an aggressive effort on the part of the public schools of the country to instruct the foreign born, adults as well as children, in the real meaning of citizenship. ”

“ But, if it be possible to speak of a comparative degree concerning what is the highest as it is the most elementary attribute of citizenship, that duty may almost be said to rest with an even more solemn and compelling obligation upon Americans of foreign origin than upon native Americans.
For we Americans of foreign antecedents are here not by the accidental right of birth, but by our own free choice for better or for worse.
We are your fellow-citizens because we made solemn oath of allegiance to America. ”

“ He may come without name, fame, or property, and he is received with open arms. After a brief residence, he is entitled to full citizenship, and is then a part of the government, enjoying all the rights and privileges of the native born. ”

“ Judge COOLEY, referring to the definition of national citizenship as contained in the fourteenth amendment, says: 'By the express terms of the amendment, persons of foreign birth, who have never renounced the allegiance to which they were born, though they may have a residence in this country, more or less permanent, for business, instruction, or pleasure, are not citizens. ”

“ It is quite common to use the term citizenship and nationality as synonymous, and this usage, though incorrect, is significant of a very real connexion between the two ideas. Nationality is membership of a nation; citizenship is one kind of membership of a state. A nation is a society of men united by common blood and descent, and by the various subsidiary bonds incidental thereto, such as common speech, religion, and manners. A state, on the other hand, is a society of men united under one government. ”

“ It recognizes in express terms, if it does not create, citizens of the United States, and it makes their citizenship dependent upon the place of their birth, or the fact of their adoption, and not upon the constitution or laws of any State or the condition of their ancestry. ”

“ It is the nation incorporated for the purposes of government and self-defence. The citizens are the members of a nation which has thus developed into a state. Citizenship is nationality that has become political. ”

“ In this study of naturalization and political life of the foreign-born citizen it is with this second concept that we have most to do.
ESSENTIALS OF CITIZENSHIP: ANCIENT—AND AMERICAN What, then, are the essentials of that citizenship to which an alien aspires and addresses himself when he seeks to become an active member in the American community whose members are something more than mere chattels of the sovereign?
“There is nothing that more characterizes a complete citizen,” says Aristotle, “than having a share in the judicial and executive part of the government.... ”

“ At the same time that citizenship is and must be the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it, and protects him, whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights, it should and must afford him protection at home and follow and protect him abroad, in whatever land he may be, on a lawful errand. ”

“ It was equally necessary that the national government should possess this power, if it was intended that citizenship should be regarded at all in the selection of those who were to fill the national offices. ”

“ If we were now to have a broader nationality as the result of our civil struggle, it was apparent to the mass of men, as well as to the publicist and statesman, that citizenship should be placed on unquestionable ground—on ground so plain that the humblest man who should inherit its protections would comprehend the extent and significance of his title. ”

“ Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS—our inferior one varies with the place. ”

“ The first Congress recognised its constitutional obligation to provide a uniform law for national citizenship by allowing an alien who had resided two years within its jurisdiction and one year within any State to take an oath before any court of common-law record to support the Constitution and thereby become a citizen. ”

“ Citizenship is membership in a political society, and implies a duty of allegiance on the part of the member and a duty of protection on the part of society. These are reciprocal obligations, one being a compensation for the other. Under our Constitution, a naturalized citizen stands on an equal footing with the native citizen in all respects save that of eligibility to the Presidency. ”

“ Or, to compare it to another thing, which perhaps better illustrates the principle involved, when a foreigner arrives upon our shores we should not say to him, 'At the end of five years, when you have familiarized yourself with our institutions, and become attached to them, we will allow you to become a citizen, and admit you to all the franchises we enjoy,' but we should require that he be naturalized the moment he touches our soil, or else excluded from the rights of citizenship forever. ”

“ And the inestimable heritage of citizenship is not to be conceded to those who seek to avail themselves of it under pressure of a particular exigency, without being able to show that it was ever possessed. ”

“ For the period of ten years from the day on which they may have obtained their citizenship, this service shall be voluntary on the part of the naturalized. Article 22. The people shall not deliberate nor govern save by means of their Representatives and Authorities, created by this Constitution. ”

“ American citizenship in its most attractive aspect has been signally illustrated in that circle, and it is not without reason that the government has so often selected from it our chief American representatives in other countries. ”

“ An interesting proposal of an inter-changeable citizenship, so that with a change of domicile an Englishman should have the chance of becoming a citizen of the United States, and an American a British citizen or a voter in an autonomous British colony, for example, has been made. ”

“ When they were reminded that American citizenship was conferred upon them, not that they might shirk its duties and misuse its advantages in the land of their birth, but that they might enjoy it and discharge its duties in the land of their adoption, they scouted the idea and insisted on their right, as American citizens, to live where they pleased. ”

“ In using this highest expression of citizenship, we must, remember that it is an opportunity for expressing as far as we can our ideals for the State and Commonwealth, and that we are bound together with all classes and conditions people in a social system, which it is each one's duty to improve and make more favorable for each other, and those who shall live after us. ”

“ QUESTION OF DUAL NATIONALITY Can a person gain a new citizenship without losing the old? The aspirant for American citizenship is required in both his declaration of intention and his final petition for naturalization to abjure in most specific fashion not merely all other allegiances, but most particularly that from which he has come. ”

“ But it goes still further, it enables Congress to dictate the terms of citizenship to foreigners, and to prevent them from being admitted to the full exercise of the rights of citizenship by the General Government; because it declares that [Pg 188] no other than a natural-born citizen, or a citizen at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President. ”

“ There is, however, no analogy between what Congress may require of aliens as a condition of admission or of citizenship and what it may require of a citizen.↑ See Holmes, The Common Law, Lectures II, III and IV, pp. ”

“ The more extended use of the word, however, corresponding to civitas, gives “citizen” the meaning of one who is a constituent member of a state in international relations and as such has full national rights and owes a certain allegiance (q.v.) as opposed to an “alien”; in republican countries the term is then commonly employed as the equivalent of “subject” in monarchies of feudal origin. For the rules governing the obtaining of citizenship in this latter sense in the United States and elsewhere see Naturalization. ”

“ The language of the Constitution is, 'The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.' If each State may make such persons its citizens, they became, as such, entitled to the benefits of this article, if there be a native-born citizenship of the United States distinct from a native-born citizenship of the several States. ”

“ All good citizens, whether naturalized or native born, are equally interested in protecting our citizenship against fraud in any form, and, on the other hand, in affording every facility for naturalization to those who in good faith desire to share alike our privileges and our responsibilities. ”

“ Protestant and Catholic, men of English or of French, of Irish or of German, descent have joined with a single-minded purpose to secure for the country what only can be achieved by the resultant union of all patriotic citizens. You of this organization have done a great service by. your insistence that citizens should pay heed first of all to their duties. Hitherto undue prominence has been given to the question of rights. Your organization is a splendid engine for giving to the stranger within our gates a high conception of American citizenship. ”