ceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization,Their children residing here, deemed citizens.
Also, children of citizens born beyond sea, &c.
Exceptions. 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 as aforesaid, except by an act of the legislature of the state in which such person was proscribed.[1]
Approved, March 26, 1790.
Statute ⅠⅠ.March 26, 1790.
Chap. IV.—An Act making appropriations for the support of government for the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there be appropriated for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, to be paid out of the monies arising from the duties on imports and tonnage, the following sums, to wit:Appropriations of monies arising from duties, for the civil list. A sum not exceeding one hundred and forty-one thousand, four hundred and ninety-two dollars, and seventy-three cents, for defraying the expenses of the civil list, as estimated by the Secretary of the Treasury, in the statement annexed to his report made to the House of Representatives on the ninth day of January last, including therein the contingencies of the several executive offices which are hereby authorized and granted; and also,War department; a sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty-five thousand, five hundred and thirty-seven dollars, and seventy-two cents, for defraying the expenses of the department of war; andPensions to invalids. the farther sum of ninety-six thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine dollars, and seventy-two cents, for paying the pensions which may become due to the invalids, as estimated in the statements accompanying the aforesaid report.
Incidental expenses of Congress.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all the expenses arising from, and incident to the sessions of Congress, which may happen in the course of the aforesaid year, agreeably to laws heretofore passed, shall be defrayed out of the monies arising from the aforesaid duties on imports and tonnage.
- ↑ The power of naturalization is exclusively in Congress. Chirac v. Chirac, 2 Wheat. 259; 4 Cond. Rep. 111.
A naturalized citizen, who in time of peace, returns to his native country for the purpose of trade, but with the intention of returning again to his adopted country, continuing in the former, a year after the war between the two countries, for the purpose of winding up his business, engaging in no new commercial transactions with the enemy, and then returning to his adopted country, has gained a domicil in his native country, and his goods are subject to condemnation. The Frances, 8 Cranch, 335; 3 Cond. Rep. 154.
The various acts on the subject of naturalization submit the decision upon the right of aliens to courts of record. They are to receive testimony; to compare it with the law; and to judge on both law and fact. If their judgment is entered on record in legal form, it closes all inquiry, and like other judgments, is complete evidence of its own validity. Spratt v. Spratt, 4 Peters, 393.
It need not appear by the record of naturalization, that all the requisites presented by law, for the admission of aliens to the rights of citizenship, have been complied with. Starke v. The Chesapeake Ins. Comp., 7 Cranch, 420; 2 Cond. Rep. 556.
A certificate by a competent court, that an alien has taken the oath prescribed by the act respecting naturalization, raises the presumption that the court was satisfied as to the moral character of the alien, and of his attachment to the principles of the constitution of the United States. The oath when taken, confers the rights of a citizen. It is not necessary that there should be an order of court admitting him to be a citizen.
The children of persons duly naturalized before the 14th of April, 1802, being under age at the time of the naturalization of their parent, were, if dwelling in the United States on the 14th of April, 1802, to be considered as citizens of the United States. Campbell v. Gordon, 6 Cranch, 176; 2 Cond. Rep. 342. See also ex parte Newman, 2 Gallis’ C. C. R. 11; Peters’ C. C. R. 457.
