I think he ought to pass some time in a state of probation, and at the end of the term be able to bring testimonials of a proper and decent behavior; no man who would be a credit to the community could think such terms difficult or indelicate; if bad men should be dissatisfied on this account, and should decline to immigrate, the regulation will have a beneficial effect; for we had better keep such out of the country than admit them into it. I conceive, sir, that an amendment of this kind would be reasonable and proper; all the difficulty will be to determine how a proper certificate of good behavior should be obtained. I think it might be done by vesting the power in the Grand Jury or District courts to determine on the character of the man, as they should find it.”

Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, said:

"He was against the indiscriminate admission of foreigners to the highest rights of human nature, upon terms so incompetent to secure the society from being overrun with the outcasts of Europe; besides, the policy of settling the vacant territory by immigration is of a doubtful nature. He believed in the United States the human species might be multiplied by a more eligible and convenient mode, than what seemed to be contemplated by the motion now before the committee. He was well satisfied for himself, that there existed no absolute necessity of peopling it in this way; and if there was no absolute necessity, he thought Congress might use their discretion, and admit none but reputable and worthy citizens-such only were fit for the society into which they were blended. The citizens of America preferred this country because it is to be preferred; the like principle he wished might be held by every man who came from Europe to reside here; but there were at least some grounds to fear to the contrary; their sensations impregnated with prejudices of education acquired under monarchical and aristocratical governments, may deprive them of that wish for pure republicanism, which is necessary in order to taste its beneficence with that magnitude which we feel on the occasion. Some kind of probation, as it has been termed, is absolutely requisite, to enable them to feel and be sensible of the blessing. Without that probation, he should be sorry to see them exercise a right which we have gloriously struggled to attain."

Michael J. Stone, of Maryland, expressed his views as follows:

"I would let the term of residence be long enough to accomplish two objects, before I would consent to admit a foreigner to have any thing to do with the politics of this country. First, that he should have an opportunity of knowing the circumstances of our government, and, in consequence thereof, shall have admitted the truth of the principles we hold. Second, that he should have acquired a taste for this government, and in order that both things may take place, in such a way as to make him worthy of admission into our society, I think a term of four or seven years ought to be required. A foreigner, who comes here, is not desirous of interfering immediately with our politics; nor is it proper that he should. His immigration is governed by a different principle; he is desirous of obtaining and holding property. I should have no objection to his doing this from the first moment he sets his foot on shore in America; but it appears to me that we ought to be cautious how we admit foreigners to the other privileges of citizenship, and that for a reason not yet mentioned; perhaps it may allude to the next generation more than to this: the present inhabitants were most of them here when engaged in a long and hazardous war. They have been active in rearing up the present government, and feel perhaps a laudable vanity in having effected what its most sanguine friends hardly dared to contemplate. There is a danger of these people losing

what they so greatly esteem; but the admission of foreigners to all places of govern ment may tincture the system with the dregs of their former habits, and corrupt what we believe the most pure of human institutions."

George Clymer, of Pennsylvania, said:

"In States, however, newly formed, it might be useful to fix a short period; but in the old States, fully peopled, he did not think the longest which had been mentioned too great."

Peter Sylvester, of New York, said:

"He thought it neither for the honor nor interest of the United States to admit aliens to the rights of citizenship indiscriminately; he was clearly in favor of a term of probation, and that their good behavior should be vouched for. He suggested the idea of lodging the power of admitting foreigners to be naturalized in the District Judges."

The bill was finally passed without a call of the yeas and nays, and does not seem to have had any opposition or discussion in the Senate. It was approved March 26, 1790, required two years' residence as a qualification for citizenship, and was embraced in one section, which was as follows:

"That any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the Constitution of the United States, which oath or affirmation such court shall administer; and the clerk of such court shall record such application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such person so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years, at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens. Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States. Provided also, That no person heretofore proscribed by any State shall be admitted a citizen aforesaid, except by an act of the Legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed."

CHAPTER XVII.

NATURALIZATION LAW OF 1795.

THE Consideration of the bill enacted into a law in 1795 again elicited a warm discussion in the House of Representatives, as will be seen by reference to the published Annals of Congress of 1793-95, page 1004 to Samuel Dexter, Jr., of Massachusetts, led off in the debate, "expressing his disapprobation of the facility by which, under the exist ing law, aliens may acquire citizenship," and moved that the term of two years' residence be striken out and a blank left, "to be filled up after more mature consideration," which was agreed to. He also proposed an amendment in reference to the mercantile foreigners who might wish to acquire citizenship.

John Page, of Virginia, though coinciding with the views of Mr. Madison, in regard to the naturalization of foreign citizens, expressed himself as follows:

"He approved the design of the mover, because he thought nothing more desirable than to see good order, public virtue, and true morality, constituting the character of citizens of the United States; for without morality, and indeed a general sense of religion, a Republican Government cannot flourish, nay, cannot long exist; since without these, disorders will arise which the strong arm of powerful Government can alone correct or retrieve."

Mr. Dexter subsequently moved another amendment, that "no alien should be admitted to the rights of citizenship, but on the oath of two credible witnesses, that in their opinion he was of good moral character and attached to the welfare of this country." This motion was seconded by Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, who spoke as follows:

"America," he said, "if her political institutions should on experience be found to be wisely adjusted, and she shall improve her natural advantages, had opened to her view a more rich and glorious prospect than ever was presented to man. She has chosen for herself a government which left to the citizen as great a portion of freedom as was consistent with a social compact. All believed the preservation of this government, in its purity, indispensable to the continuance of our happiness. The foundation on which it rested was general intelligence and public virtue; in other words, wisdom to discern, and patriotism to pursue the general good. He had pride, and he gloried in it, in believing his countrymen more wise and virtuous than any other people on earth; hence he believed them better qualified to administer and to support a Republican Government. This character of Americans was the result of early education, aided indeed by the discipline of the Revolution.

Much information (he said) might be obtained by the experience of others, if, in despite of it, we were not determined to be guided only by a visionary theory. The ancient Republics of Greece and Rome (said he), see with what jealousy they guarded the rights of citizenship against adulteration by foreign mixture. The Swiss nation (he said), in modern times, had not been less jealous on the same subject. Indeed, no example could be found, in the history of man, to authorize the experiment which had been made by the United States. It seemed to have been adopted by universal practice as a maxim, that the republican character was no way to be formed but by early education. In some instances, to form this character, those propensities which are generally considered as almost irresistible, were appeased and subdued. And shall we (he asked) alone adopt the rash theory, that the subjects of all governments, despotic, monarchical, and aristocratical, are, as soon as they set foot on American ground, qualified to participate in administering the sovereignty of our country? Shall we hold the benefits of American citizenship so cheap as to invite, nay, almost bribe, the discontented, the ambitious, and the avaricious of every country to accept them? We had (he said) on this subject not only example, but warning. Will gentlemen (said Mr. S.) recollect the rage of ages, which existed in the country from which we came, between the Saxon, Danish, and Norman immigrants and the natives of the country? The cruelties, the oppressions, the assassinations, in a word, the miseries to which this gave birth? Perhaps it might be said that in this instance the immigrants were hostile invaders; but the same events took place in the decline of the Roman empire, between the immigrants who were invited to occupy the vacant frontiers and the ancient inhabitants; although the former ought to have been united to the latter by every principle of affection and gratitude. By these and almost an infinity of other instances, it would not be rash to conclude, that, by the undeviating principles of human nature, whenever the inhabitants of one country should be permitted to settle in another by national affections, a union would be formed unfriendly not only to ancient inhabitants, but also to social order. Our own experience was not, he believed, in opposition to the general observation. Although this reasoning was to his mind conclusive against a general and indiscriminate admission of aliens to the right of citizenship, yet he did not wish it should go to a complete exclusion.

William Vans Murray, of Maryland, declared:

"He was quite indifferent if not fifty immigrants came into this country in a year's time. It would be unjust to hinder them, but impolitic to encourage them. He was afraid that, coming from a quarter of the world so full of disorder and corruption, they might contaminate the purity and simplicity of the American character."

Ezekiel Gilbert, of New York, said:

"The term of residence, before admitting aliens, ought to be very much longer than mentioned in the bill."

Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, said:

"He agreed to the idea of Mr. Gilbert. He wished that a method could be found of permitting aliens to possess and transmit property, without, at the same time, giving them a right to vote."

James Madison, of Virginia, remarked as follows:

« There was no class of immigrants from whom so much was to be apprehended, as

those who should obtain property in shipping. Much greater mischief was to be feared from them than from any influence in votes at an election. If he were disposed to make any distinction of one class of immigrants more than another, as to the length of time before they should be admitted citizens, it would be as to the mercantile people—as these persons may, by possessing themselves of American shipping and seamen, be enabled clandestinely to favor such particular nations in the way of trade as they may think proper."

For carrying into more complete effect the power given by the Constitution, this bill finally passed the House, met with no opposition in the Senate, and was approved January 29, 1795. By it a residence of five years was required, and some other important conditions to the admission of citizenship imposed. The main provisions of it were as follows:

That any alien, being a free white person, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, or any of them, on the following conditions, and not otherwise. First. He shall have declared, on oath or affirmation, before the Supreme, Superior, District, or Circuit court of some one of the States, or of the Territories Northwest or South of the river Ohio, or a Circuit or District court of the United States, three years at least before his admission, that it was, bona fide, his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, State, or sovereignty, whereof such alien may at that time be a citizen or subject. Secondly. He shall, at the time of his application to be admitted, declare, on oath or affirmation, before some one of the courts aforesaid, that he has resided within the United States five years at least, and within the State or Territory where such court is at the time held, one year at least; that he will support the Constitution of the United States; and that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, State, or sovereignty whatever, and particularly by name, the prince, potentate, State or sovereignty, whereof he was before a citizen or subject; which proceedings shall be recorded by the clerk of the court. Thirdly. The court admitting such alien shall be satisfied that he has resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, five years; and it shall further appear to their satisfaction that, during that time, he has behaved as a man of a good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well-disposed to the good order and happiness of the same. Fourthly. In case the alien applying to be admitted to citizenship shall have borne any hereditary title, or been of any of the orders of nobility, in the Kingdom or State from which he came, he shall, in addition to the above requisites, make an express renunciation of his title or order of nobility, in the court to which his application shall be made; which renunciation shall be recorded in the said court.

Sec. 2. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That any alien now residing within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, may be admitted to become a citizen, on his declaring, on oath or affirmation, in some one of the courts aforesaid, that he has resided two years, at least, within and under the jurisdiction of the same, and one year, at least, within the State or Territory where such court is at the time held; that he will support the Constitution of the United States, and that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, State or sovereignty whatever, and particularly by name, the prince, potentate, State, or sovereignty, whereof he was before a citizen or subject; and