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.

ship in the United States only by conforming to its laws for the naturalization of the foreigner, provided, of course, he comes up to the lawful standard of eligibility (1). The Federal Constitution clothed Congress with the power, among other things, "to establish an uniform rule of naturalization * *** throughout the United States(2).” Before the adoption of the present Federal Constitution, several of the States exercised the power to naturalize and admit persons of alien birth to citizenship. This power of naturalization, or the conferring of Federal citizenship on a qualified alien, now lies exclusively with Congress, for that body, in 1802, passed an act providing an uniform rule for the naturalization of white aliens. This rule deprives the States individually of the power. of naturalizing aliens according to their own free will and pleasure, thereby giving them the rights and privileges of citizens in every other State. The exercise by Congress of the power which the Federal Constitution confers upon it to provide an uniform rule of naturalization," was necessary to prevent one State, in its eagerness to acquire population, to so relax its rule of naturalization as to modify or break down the policy of another State in the admission of aliens to Federal citizenship. If no uniform rule of naturalization had been adopted for all of the States to follow, one State might have naturalized an alien upon one year's residence, whereas other

(1) The exceptions to this general rule are those whose allegiance passed with the possessions of the soil by territorial cession, or by treaty, and such as may have citizenship conferred upon them by special act of Congress.

(2) Const. U. S. Sec. 8.

States, more conservative, might have required a much longer term of residence; or, if the act of Congress, after the adoption of the uniform rule of naturalization which requires five years residence as an essential element of naturalization, had not deprived the States in their individual capacity of the power of naturalization, it would have been of no use whatever (1).

WHO ARE ELIGIBLE TO NATURALIZATION.

The first point to determine in connection with the conversion of an alien to citizenship, is presented in the question: Who are eligible to become naturalized?

According to the act of Congress of April, 1802, any alien, "being a free white person," was eligible to admission to Federal citizenship. In the revision of the Federal statutes, adopted by Congress June 22, 1874, the words "free white person" were dropped, and the statutory declaration of race qualification read "any alien may be admitted." All barriers against race and color were thus completely broken down, although it was designed only for the conferring of citizenship upon the freedmen of African nativity and descent. Congress corrected the error July 18, 1875, and restored the qualification to its former condition, excepting that the privilege of naturalization was extended to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent."

"The provisions of this title shall apply to aliens, being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativlty, and to persons of African descent.--Rev. Stats. U. S., Sec, 2169.

(1) Kent's Com., 424.