Amendments to the Constitution, [8 June] 1789 — reading text

been aifo faid, that, Carohna tendered an oath to difco\*er who were friends and who were enemies. In March 1778, the legillature of South-Caro!ir,a, pafled an aft to oblige every free male inhabitant of that Itate, above 16 years of age, to take an oath of allegiance to the {late ; as they were notorioully many perlons then in the Itate who were inimical to its liberties, fuch a liep was neceffary to give a reafonab'e caufe for obliging tliem to quitr tl^. t country, with that vie.v, the oath was generally tended only to thufe who weie fufpected or known nor to be friendly to the caule ; he had been informed by fcveral perfons, who were zealous partizaiis, and then in Caroli- na, that they had never taken any oath of allegiance, and that it had not been required ot them on this occalion. The ad direded, that thofe who did not take it ihoulJ quit the Ifatc, and if they returned, Ihould be dealt with as traitors, and lulTer death. let us exansine, faid he, vvliether this act can in any rcfpecl apply to the prefenc quedion. ift:= It particularly nieniiontd " inhabitants of the Hate of South-Carolina." It could not therefore ap- ply to perfons who were abroad. 2d. It directed that the oath fhouid be taken before a juilice of peace in Carolina, this could not therefore extend to a perion then at Gene- va 3dly. It 'vas direded to be taken in one month after the palhng of the atl, and it was not poihble I ihould hear of the exiftence of fuch an ac^ in lefs than three months. 4thly. It was directed, tliat if tVe perlons refuied to take it, they fhouid quit the Itate, but 1 was already out of it. fthly. Thofe who refuted to take it, were prevented from acquiring or conveying pioperty, and rendered incapable ot exerciling any profellion ; but on my return to Carolina, 1 took peaceable poffeffion of my eftate, part of which con- {u'ted of lands and houfes, which had been mine (ince the year 1770, and I was imuiediarely admitted to the exercife of the profefiion for which I was educated. 6thly. The ad direded, that if any perfon returned to Carolina, after having refufed to take the oath, he Ihould be put to death as a traitor, and yec on my return, never having taken the oath, I was eleded a member of the legiilature, and a privy counfellor, and inltead of being deemed a criminal inyfelf, I aded as attorney-general to puniili others j and  . 390 DEBATES A. i^'Hg. yet the petitioner, in one of his late publications, lays great ftrefs oil the applicabil.ty of this aft. 2Jly. i here tould be no doubt that a minor might be a citizen, t oin the very words of the coiilbturion, which ad- mitted a perl on to be a member of the houle of reprefenta- tives at 2^, and yet required a citizenihip of 7 years — Tiiis was ot itielf a fufficient refutation of every thing contained in the petition on this head — The conftitution acknowjfdged that a perfon might be a citizen at 18 ; if fo, there was no reafon why a ptrfon might not be one at 16 or 14. Mr Lf,e Said the co'Timittee had now to determine, whether Mr. Sniiih was a citizen of South Carolina during his abfence from home or not. If the laws of that ftate recognized him as fuch, the qucftion was determined, becaul'e thi< houle could n'-t difpute a fa6l of that kind. From the re- fereiice that has been made 10 the conititution and laws of South Carolina, and the circumffances which took place un- der them, with refpetl to Mr. Smith, it was convincing that he was acknowledged thei'e tubes citizen in con- o fjquence of the revolution Mr, Thatcher. Thought the examination had been full, the fafls dated in the memoral were admitted, but neverthelefs it ap- peared from other fafts, that Mr. Smith was received and relpec^ed as a citizen of that Handing which the conftitutioQ required. He had conlidered the lubjed maturely and was now ready for the decifion. The petition of Dodor Ramfay was agam read, in which he ftated, " 1 hat citizenlliip with the United States is an adventitious characi[tr to every jjerion poflelling it who is now thirty years of age, and that it can, in no cafe, have been acquired but in one of the following nicdes : ift. By birth or inheritance. 2diy, By having been a party to the late revolution. 3dly, By taking an oath ot hdeiity to foine of the ftates. 4thly, By tacit confevt. 5thly, By adoption :And that Mr. Smith cannot have acquired the characl:er of a citizen in ei'lier of ihefe modes ftven years ago. Ke cannot be a citizen by birth or inheritance, for he was born in 1758 in South Carolina while a Britifh co- lony, and his parents were both dead many ytars before the declaration of indeperdence his birth-right and inhe- ; ritanee can therefore be no other than that of a Britilh fubjcct ;for no man can be uorn a citizen of a g&vernmeat  - A. 1789. Of C O N G R E S S. 391 which did not exift at the time of his being born nor can ; parents leave to their children any otlier pohiical charac- ter than that which they themfeives polFeiTed." After going on to Itace his reafons why Mr. Smith conld not have acquii-ed citizenlhipin any of the other mode'- l)e ; proceeds to lay, that he " conceives that birth and relideme in this country before the refolution rould not confer citizen/hip on Anericans wlio were abfent when inde- pendence was declared, wnile they were abfent, and an- terior to their returning and joining their country Uiider its new and independent government : for on that fup- pofition, many perfons holtile to thefe ftates niuft be ad- mitted citizens, thofe who have been born for thirteen yeacs before the declaration of indepe;;dcnce wiihai the polts of our north weitern frontiers, v. hich are ui.jiilHy detained from us by the Briuih, would be citizens. Our Ealt-lnclia trade would be laid open to the numerous na- tives of this country, who are now difperfed over Eu- rope and the Well-Indies. If birth and refidence within the limits of the United States before the revolution con- ferred the right of citizenihip, perfons of the aforefaid dfcfcription wlio have neither done nor hazarded any any thing for our independence, might trade to the Eafl- Indiesas cirizensof the United States, from the circumftance of their having been born in this country, thirty or forty years ago, and after having glutted our market with ex- travagant importations, carry the whole profits of their counnerce to their prefent refidence in foreign countries. Thefe and many other dangerous confequencts would, as your petitioner apprehends, follow from the tltablilliment of a precedent, by which it was acknowledged, that a na- tive of this country might beacitizcn of the United States before he lived under their government." Mr. Madison Ithink the merit of the queltion is now to be decided, whether the gentleman is eligible to a feat in this houfe or not, but it will depend on the decifion of a previous queifior, whether he has been feven years a citizen of the United States or not. From an attention to ttie fafts which have been addu- ced, and from a confideration of the principles eftabiillied by the revolution, the conclnfion I have drawn is, that Mr. Smith, was on the declaration of independence a citi- zen of the United-States, ai^d uultfs it appears that he has lorfeited h,s right, by ibme negled or overt nct, he liad  39'i DEBATES A. 1789. Continued a citizen until the clay of 3iis eleftion to af'ca^in this houfe. I take it to be a clear point, that we are to be guided in ourdecifion, by the lawsand coiiilitution of Souih- Carolina, {o far as they can gu'dc us, and where the laws do notexprefsly guide us, we uiuil be guided by principles of a general nature lo far as they are applicable to theprelcnt cai'e. It were to be wiHu-d, that we had Ibme law adduced more precifely defining the qualities of a citizen or an alien ; par- ticularly laws of this kind, have obtained in fume of the iiaces ; if fuch a 'aw exittetlin South Cairolina, it might have prevented this queftion from ever coming before us ; but lincc this has not been the cafe, let us fettle fome ge- jitral principle before we proceed to the prefumpcive proof arming from pubi;c meafures under the law, whitrh tencS to give fupport co the inference dr^wn from fuch principles. It is an ellablilhed maxim that birth is a criterion of al- Legiance. Birth however derives its force fornetimes frorn plate ind fornetimes from parentage, but in general place is the molt certain criterion i: is v/hat •, applies in the United Slates ; it will therefore bt unncceillu-y to invelli- gatc any other. Mr. Smith founds his claim upon his birthnoht : his ancellors were amontT the Hrlt fettlers of that colony. It is well known to many gentlemen on this floor, as well as to the public, that the petitioner ij a man of talents^ one who would not lightly hazard his reputation in fup- port of vitionary principles :yet I cannot but think he has erred in one of the principles upon whi-h he grounds his charge. He fuppofes, when this country feparated from Great Britain, the tie of allegiance fubfiilcd between the inhabitants of America and the king; of that nation, unlefs by fome adventitious circumftance the allegiance was tranl. ferred to cue of the United States. 1 think there is a diffinclion which will invalidate his doclririe in this particu- lar^ a diitinction between that primary allegiance which wc ov/e to that particular fociety of which we r-re members^ and the feccndary aileg-iance we owe to the fovereio-n efta- blilhed by that fociety. J his dilliniftion will be illuih-atcd by the doctrine ellablilhed by the laws of Great Britain, which were the laws of this country before the revolution. The iovereign cannot make a citizen by any a;^ of his own 5 he cdn confer denisenlhip, but this does not make a man citlicr a citizen or lubiecl. In order ui make a citizen or 'fubjec% it is eilabliihed, that allegiance Ihall iirlt be due t-o A. 1789. Of C N G R E S S. 393 the whole n;ition, it nectflary that a national a£l ihould is pals to admit an individual member. In order to become a member of the Briiilh empire, where birth has not en- dowed the perlon with that privilege, he mult be natu- ralized by an aft of parliament. What was the litu^^tion of the people of America when the diilokuion of their allegiance took plate by the declara- tion of independence ? 1 conceive that every perfon who owed this primary allegiance to the particular community in which he has burn retimed his riglit of birth, a» the member of a new tOinmunity ; that he was confequcntly ablolved from the fecondary allegiance he had owed to the Britilh fovereign If he was not a minor, he be- : came bound by his own act as a member of the I'ocicty who feparated with him from a fubmillion to a foreign countr}'. If he was a minor, his confent was involved in the decilion of that fociety to which he belonged by the ties of nature, what was the allegiance as a citizen of South-Carolina, he owed to the King of Great Britain ? he owed his allegiance to hhu as a Kmg of that fociety to which, as a fociety he owed his primary allegiance. When that I'ociety feparated from Great