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AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP.

The ordinary definition of citizenship is "the state of being vested with the rights and privileges of a citizen." Such a definition is, however, vague and uncertain at best. It involves the determination of what constitutes a citizen, and what are the rights and privileges which a citizen enjoys to the exclusion of the person who is not a citizen. A citizen, in the popular meaning of the word, is a member of the community to which he belongs. Citizens are the people who compose the community, and who, in their associated capacity, have established or submitted themselves to the dominion of a government for the promotion of their general welfare, and for the protection of their individual as well as their collective rights (1). Citizenship, therefore, implies membership in a nation. As a member of the body politic, a citizen, whether native or naturalized, is a person who owes allegiance to the government, who must submit to taxation for its support and give it service in case of necessity, and who is entitled, in return, to "liberty of person and conscience, to the right of acquiring and possessing property, of marriage and the social relations, of suit and defense, and to security in person, estate and reputation (2)." Citizenship, in this broad and general

92 U. S. Rep. 542.

í Litt. (K.), 323.

sense, draws no line as to sex, age, race. color or condition, providing the person claiming it has been born within the territorial boundaries of the nation, and is under its jurisdiction, or has been naturalized in conformity with its laws, or has acquired it through the operation of a treaty, or by means of a special act of Congress, or by means of any other regular and lawful method, and has not, through the commission of any unlawful act, or any other cause, forfeited what he may have acquired by either of the processes described.

The political interpretation of citizenship in the United States implies the right to vote at all elections held for the filling of public offices or for the determination of measures affecting the public welfare, and a qualification to fill such offices as may be in the gift of the people or attainable by appointment.

American citizenship is divided, however, into two separate and distinct classifications-Federal and Stateeach of which may be entirely independent of the other."

I.

FEDERAL CITIZENSHIP.

A person may be a citizen of the United States without enjoying State citizenship and the special rights and privleges which State citizenship confers.

Prior to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, no mode existed of

obtaining citizenship of the United States, except by first becoming a citizen of some State. It had been long contended, and had been held by many learned authorities, and had never been judicially decided to the contrary, that there was no such thing as a citizen of the United States, except as that condition arose from citizenship of some State. The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution set that controversy at rest, for it defines and declares who shall be citizens of the United States, namely: "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Congress was empowered by the amendment "to enforce by appropriate legislation" its provisions; and it did so, by enacting that "all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are declared to be citizens of the United States (1).” The constitutional qualification, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," was intended to exclude the children of foreign representatives, who, if born in the United States, are recognized as being born within "obedience and allegiance of the country which the parents officially represent.' But whatever special rights and privileges it may be in the power of a State to confer upon its citizens, there are certain constitutional rights which all Federal citizens enjoy in common (2), whether they are citizens of States or not. As to these common rights, the Federal Constitution establishes an equality between all persons, although it may be unable to confer equality as to other (1) Rev. Stats. U. S., Sec. 1992. (2) 3 Hughes, 13.

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privileges (1). These, rights in common are known as "privileges and immunities," and are fundamental in character. These privileges and immunities have been judicially defined to be "the right to come to the seat of government to assert any claim he (the citizen) may have upon the government; to transact any business he may have with it; to seek its protection; to share its offices; to engage in administering its functions; to have free access to its seaports, through which all the operations of foreign commerce are conducted; to use the navigable waters of the United States, however they may penetrate the territory of the several States; to free access to the sub-treasuries, the land offices, the revenue offices and the courts of justice in the several States; to peaceably assemble and petition for redress and grievances; to the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; to demand the care and protection of the Federal Government over his life, liberty and property, when on the high seas or within the jurisdiction of a foreign government; the enjoyment of all rights secured to citizens by foreign treaties with foreign nations, and the right to become a citizen of any State, of his own volition, by a bona fide residence therein (2)."

These general privileges of Federal citizenship may be acquired:

By inheritance—that is, by virtue of one's parentage or place of birth.

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By marital relations.

By the cession or transfer of foreign territory.

By naturalization.

By treaty.

By special act of Congress.

By admission of a territory to Statehood.

FEDERAL CITIZENSHIP BY INHERITANCE.

Federal citizenship may be acquired by inheritance, by virtue of the citizenship of the father, irrespective of the place of birth. Thus, a child born in a foreign country, whose father is a citizen of the United States, is a Federal citizen by virtue of his father's citizenship, and under the law of expatriation (1). But a child born abroad, of persons once citizens of the United States, who have become citizens of a foreign power, is not a citizen of the United States (2). And there is a statutory limitation to the right of descent of such citizenship, for if a Federal citizen thus born abroad remains abroad, and has issue without ever having resided within the territorial boundaries of the United States, such issue has no claim to Federal citizenship.

All children heretofore or hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or may be at the time of their birth citizens thereof, are declared to be citizens of the United States; but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to children whose fathers never resided in the United States.- Rev. Stats. U. S., Sec. 1993.

But the child of a Federal representative born while abroad in an official capacity (3), and a child born of American parents on board an American vessel lying in

(1) 4 McCrary, 66; 3 Dall., 133.

(2) 14 Atty. Gen. op. 295.

(3) 1 Abb. U. S. 28, 40; 1 Am. T. L. U. S. S. C. 22.

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