The widow and orphans of an alien resident whose fulfillment of other requirements of the naturalization laws, after declaring his intention to become a citizen, has been interrupted by death, acquire citizenship by virtue of the principle which relieves the owner of an insured vessel or cargo of the penalty of loss, when such loss is caused by an act of God through the agency of the elements or other unforeseen and unavoidable event. If they were deprived of the benefit of his bona fide intention (an intention which it is reasonable to presume he would have faithfully carried into effect had he lived) through his death, they would be suffering the penalty of an act of God, for which no man can be held responsible.

"The children of persons who have been duly naturalized under any law of the United States, or who, previous to the passing of any law on that subject by the Government of the United States, may have become citizens of any one of the States, under the laws thereof, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of the naturalization of their parents, shall, if dwelling in the United States, be considered as citizens thereof; and the children of persons who now are, or have been, citizens of the United States, shall, though born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, be considered as citizens thereof; but no person hereafter proscribed by any State, or who has been legally convicted of having joined the army of Great Britain during the Revolutionary War, shall be admitted to become a citizen without the consent of the legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed."-Rev. Stats. U. S., Sec. 2172.

FEDERAL CITIZENSHIP BY TERRITORIAL CESSION.

The transfer of territory from one nation to another carries with it the allegiance of those remaining in it at the time of the transfer (1). Thus, the allegiance of residents of territory ceded to the United States is thereafter due to the United States, unless differently specified in the articles of cession (2). The doctrine of election of per

sons who are residents of annexed territory, to become citizens of the country to which it has been annexed, or to return to their mother country, has been recognized by the courts (1). The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (2), ceding Mexican territory to the United States, gave Mexicans (3) residing within the ceded territory the right to choose their allegiance within one year after the date of the exchange of treaty ratifications. Those who remained in the territory ceded, after the expiration of one year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, were considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States, (a). The inhabitants of (1) 20 How., 8; 18 How., 235; 1 New Mexico, 29, 317; 3 Ala., 546; 1 Clark, Pa., 214; 2 Mast., La., 185; 1 McAllister, 186.

(2) Article VIII of the Treaty of Queretaro.

(3) The language of the treaty is "Mexicans," not Mexican citizens, and it has been contended that such of the Indian race as had severed their tribal relations and adopted the civilization of the Franciscan missionaries, and become attached to the several mission establishments located in the territory ceded, and who are commonly known as Mission Indians, come under the operation of the term "Mexicans"; but the point has never been judicially determined.

(a) "Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain, for the future, within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever,

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territorie after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain their character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have decided to become citizens of the United States.

In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it guarantees equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States."-Article VIII, Treaty of Queretaro, May 26, 1848.

"The Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve the character of citizens of the Mexican Republic, conformably with what is stipu lated in the preceding article, shall be incorporated into the Union of the

Louisiana were incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted to all the rights of Federal citizenship, promptly after the ratification of the treaty of cession (b). The treaty with Russia, ceding to the United States the territory of Alaska, ratified and proclaimed June 20, 1867, gave the inhabitants of the ceded territory (uncivilized tribes excepted) the right of reserving their national allegiance and returning to Russia within three years; those remaining in the ceded territory after that period were admitted to United States citizenship (c). The annexation of the Republic of Texas as a State gave its citizens Federal citizenship, subject to the provisions of the State Constitution (d). By the cession of the Floridas to the United States by Spain, the allegiance of the United States, and be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States) to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States, according to the principles of the Constitution; and in the meantime shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction."-Art. IX, Treaty of Queretaro, May 26, 1848.

(b) "The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principle of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the mean time they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they profess.”—Art. III, Treaty of Paris, April 30, 1803.

(c) "The inhabitants of the ceded territory, according to their choice, reserving their natural allegiance, may return to Russia within three years; but if they should prefer to remain in the ceded territory, they, with the exception of uncivilized native tribes, shall be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and shall be maintained a d protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and religion. The uncivilized tribes will be subject to such laws and regulations as the United States may from time to time adopt in regard to aboriginal tribes of that country."-Art. III, Treaty of Washington, June 20, 1867.

(d) "All free male persons over the age of twenty-one years (Indians not taxed, Africans and descendants of Africans excepted), who shall have resided six months in Texas, immediately preceding the acceptance of this Constitution by the Congress of the United States, shall be deemed qualified electors."-Sec. 2, Art. II, Const. of Texas, 1845.

inhabitants thereof was transferred peremptorily to the United States, with the somewhat indefinite provision "as soon as may be consistent with the principles of the Federal Constitution (e)."

The principle that the allegiance of the citizens of ceded territory passes from the nation making the cession to the nation receiving it, at the time the cession is consummated, is, however, limited in its application and operation. It relates only to the natural born citizens of the nation making the cession. Naturalized citizens of the nation making the cession residing within the territory ceded at the time of the transfer, do not share with the native born in this political transition. The act of cession restores the naturalized citizen to his original civil and political status, whatever that may have been before he became naturalized, for the reason that the allegiance which he owed to the government of his adoption was purely voluntary and statutory (1).

Birth binds man by the tie of natural allegiance to the soil; and the right to change the political relations of an inhabitant of ceded territory from the sovereign government making the cession, and within whose dominion and under whose jurisdiction such inhabitant was born,

(e) "The inhabitants of the ceded territories shall be secured in the free exercise of their religion, without any restriction; and all those who may desire to remove to the Spanish dominions shall be permitted to sell or export their effects, at any time whatever, without being subject, in either case, to duties. The inhabitants of the territories which His Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States, by this treaty, shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, as soon as may be consistent with the principles of the Federal Constitution, and admitted to the enjoyment of all privileges, rights, and immu. nities of the citizens of the United States.”—Aris. V and VI., Treaty of Washington, Feb. 22, 1821.

(1) Tobin vs. Walkinshaw, 1 McAllister (Circuit of Cal.) 186.

to the sovereign government receiving it, is recognized by the law of nature and of nations. But no power exists in the one government to transfer, or in the other government to receive, the voluntary or statutory allegiance of a naturalized citizen, for his allegiance is the offspring of municipal law, and its support does not rest upon the law of nature and the code of nations. The act of cession is, to a naturalized citizen, an absolute release from all political obligations growing out of his naturalization, and it peremptorily remits him to the subjection of the government which he renounced when he was naturalized (1). He stands, therefore, in his relations to the new government of the territory ceded, in the position of an alien resident; and if he desires to submit himself to its dominion as a citizen, he must conform to its laws for the naturalization of foreigners.

FEDERAL CITIZENSHIP BY NATURALIZATION.

All civilized nations have provided rules for the admission of persons of foreign birth to the rights and privileges of citizenship by naturalization or adoption. These rules are stringent or lax according to the nature of the inducements offered to immigration, the degree of danger to the commonwealth attending an influx of a foreign element, and the facility with which persons of foreign birth assimilate with the native population. The United States is not an exception to this rule of civilized nations. An alien can acquire Federal citizen(1) 1 McAllister (Circ. of Cal.), 193, 194, 195.