E i874 PROTECTION TO AMERICAN CITIZENS ABROAD-GERMANS AND IRISH-PARTIES AND PLATFORMS. But if we consider the variety and magnitude of foreign elements to which we have been hospitable, and their ready fusion with the earlier stocks, we have new evidence of strength and vivid force in our population, which we may not refuse to admire. The disposition and the capacity thus shown give warrant of a powerful society. "All nations," says Lord Bacon, "that are liberal of naturalization are fit for empire." — William M. Evarts's Centennial Oration. SPEECH OP Hi. HON. SAMUEL S. COX, OF NEW YORK, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ' SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1876. WASHINGTON 1876. Glass EJl73_ Book_ l Cl24L / o PROTECTION TO AMERICAN CITIZENS ABROAD-GERMANS AND IRISH-PARTIES AND PLATFORMS. But if we consider the variety and magnitude of foreign elements to which we have been hospitable, and their ready fusion with the earlier stocks, we have new evidence of strength and vivid force in our population, which we may not refuse to admire. The disposition and the capacity thus shown give warrant of a powerful society. "All nations, " says Lord Bacon, "that are liberal of naturalization are tit for empire."— William M. Evarts's Centennial Oration. SPEECH OF HON. SAMUEL S. COX, OF NEW YORK, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1876. WASHING-TON 1876. MODIFICATION OF TKEATIE8. This republican platform has the effrontery to call for a modifica- tion of existing treaties with foreign governments. Why ¥ In order that the same protection shall be afforded to the adopted citizen that is given to the native born ; that all necessary laws should be passed to protect emigrants in the absence of power in the States for that purpose ! Never in the history of political parties was there so gross an insult to ordinary intelligence as this platform. This I will proceed to show. What treaties are referred to in it ? Is it the treaty with Great Britain or the treaty with the German Confederation ? If it is the treaty with Great Britain, the credit, if any, confessedly does not belong to the present administration ; and if it did, that treaty needs no modifica- tion unless republican zealots desire to make it conform to the out- rageous treaty made by George Bancroft with the German Emperor in 1868. The British treaty was celebrated in the administration of An- drew Johnson. Then our Secretary of State instructed Reverdy John- son, our minister to England, on the 23d of September, 18G8, to place this matter of protection or allegiance above all others in importance. He ordered it to be considered before any other diplomatic question. The San Juan boundary and the Alabama claims questions, then pending, were to be held in abeyance until " the naturalization question should be satisfactorily settled by treaty or by law of Parliament." The Amer- ican principle, once advocated by Cass, Marcy, and other democratic statesmen, was then and thus laid down by the administration of Johnson : The principles to be settled are, that it is the right of every human being "who is neither convicted nor accused of crime to renounce his home and native allegiance and seek a new home and transfer his allegiance to any other nation that he may choose; and that, having made and perfected his choice in good faith, and still ad- hering to it in good faith, he shall be entitled from his new sovereign to the same pro- tection, under the law of nations, that that sovereign lawfully extends to his native subjects or citizens. Our minister to England followed these instructions, and the result appears in the first article of the protocol, which is as follow»: Such citizens as aforesaid, of the United States, who have become, or shall be- come, and are naturalized according to law within the British dominions as British subjects, shall, subject to the provisions of articles 2 and t, be held by the United States to be, in all respects and for all pui-poses, British subjects, and shall be treated as such by the United States. Reciprocally such British subjects as afore- said who have become, or shall become, and are naturalized according to law within the United States of America as citizens thereof, shall, subject to the provisions of articles 2 and 4, be held by Great Britain to be, in all respects and for all purposes, American citizens, and shall be treated as such by Great Britain. Mr. Johnson subsequently, in reviewing the negotiations he had conducted in London, thus disposes of the matter of naturalization : The English doctrine is so wholly unfounded in reason that his lordship did not hesitate to abandon it. Growing out of a feudal policy, it is uusuited to the rights of a free people. It assumes that allegiance is due to the soil upon which a man is born. It makes him therefore a political serf, and denies to him the power to change for the better his condition. No free people can consent to such a doc- trine, and notwithstanding the uniform decisions of Her Majesty's courts, hoary with age, and never for a moment questioned by any judicial decision, even up to the moment when our protocol was signed, it fell at once before the light of British and American freedom. To Andrew Johnson and Reverdy Johnson is due the merit which belongs to this recognition of the protection which our Government owes to a citizen who has fixed his fortune with us and contributed to the development of our greatness. They held aloft the idea that lie should not against bis will, forfeit the protection of our Govern- ment; so that this treaty, which is a triumph of democratic policy, needs no " modification " and is its own best encomium. Does the republican platform propose to modify it ? GERMAN TREATY. Mr. Speaker, I presume the republican platform which I have quoted did not contemplate this treaty. Perhaps it referred to the very ex- traordinary treaty of Bancroft made under the republican administra- tion of General Grant. By that treaty the doctrine that a naturalized citizen is entitled under the law of nations to the same protection that a native subject is, Avas shamelessly abandoned. A German natural- ized citizen is thereby remanded to the authority of his fatherland if he should return there and remain beyond a period of two years. This treaty expires next year; but every moment that it remains it is a national disparagement and disgrace. Under its provisions already a German-American citizen, Steinkauler, has been placed in the Prus- sian army and deprived of our protection. Not ouce nor twice, but thrice, have the President and his Secretary of State asked Congress for legislation to carry out this un-American treaty. The bill now before the House, to which I am speakiug, is one of this character. It is almost a copy of the bill of Hon. E. R. Hoar of the last two Congresses. That bill I have had the pleasure and the honor thus far to assist in defeating. Whenever it is called up in this House it will be promptly tabled. Of that I am assured. It should be called a bill to " denaturalize" our citizens, to " discour- age" immigration. The distinguished editor of the Illinois Staats- Zeitung wrote to me in April, 1874, and thus describes a similar bill and pictures some of its results : Upon the subject of the denaturalization bill which, in your speech of April 22, you have opposed, I have written quite a lengthy letter to Mr. Orth, of Indiana, and I wish you would read that letter if Mr. Orth should not have destroyed it. There are a few points in it which, in my opinion, have not yet been as thoroughly ventilated as they should be. One is that, by the Bancroft treaties, a naturalized citizen residing in his native country two years may be considered as having re- linquished his American citizenship. When this treaty was before the then North German Diet, Bismarck stated expressly that the German government did not in- tend to make use of this provision except in such cases where mala fide emigra- tion (for the purpose of evading military service) was clearly proven. But by the present bill the United States would actually cast out of their citizenship all natu- ralized citizens who should reside two years in their native country, thus out-Bis- marcking Bismarck considerably. The other point is that in regard to alien women marrying American citzens and thereby becoming American citizens themselves except as to the country of their birth. That provision, in spite of all Mr. Hoar says in its defense, is a brutal and stupid outrage upon all marriage legislation of all civilized countries. According to it, if my wife, after having become the mother of half a dozen native Americans, should, as a widow, live ("continue to live") with her relations in Germany, she would lose her American citizenship after having lost her German one by marry- ing; me; would, in fact, be an outcast. The title of the bill should read: "A bill to declare all naturalized citizens citi- zens on sufferance, to make them hate the United States as their stepmother country, and to repudiate the pledges given by the Republic to her naturalized citizens." Yours, respectfully, HEEMASra' EASTEE. Since the treaty expires on the 19th of November, 1878, it may not be necessary to carry out the very tardy and dishonest suggestion of the republican platform to " modify" it for the protection of adopted American citizens. But, in the language of the democratic platform, "reform is necessary to correct these errors which have stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth of the shield of American citizenship." The advent of a democratic administration will allow no diplomacy which thus discards the liberty-loving German from partnership in our franchises and prosperities. We can illy afford to pursue any policy which would close our ports to emigration from an empire which has 43,000,000 of thrifty people. I have already, Mr. Speaker, on the 22d of April last, given my reasons against the attempt to make laws here to execute this un- American policy and treaty; but the importance of the question in connection with our presidential campaign and the platforms of our parties constrain mo as the representative of a district containing a large majority of people, foreign-born or of foreign descent, and in- cluding some :50,000 German people, to add other suggestions against this proposed legislation. THE OKIGIN OF THIS rUOSClUTTIVE, AXTI-GEKM.VX LEGISLATION. What is the source of this prescriptive legislation against our nat- uralization? It began with our Executive, his Secretary of State, and Mr. Bancroft, minister to Berlin. The President of the United States in his last annual message to Con- gress speaks of persons " who, if they have remained in this country long enough to entitle them to be naturalized, have generally not much overpassed that period, and have returned to the country of their origin, where they reside, avoiding all duties to the United States by their absence, and claiming to be exempt from all duties to the country of their nativity and of their residence by reason of their alleged naturalization." FEUDAL AND "FEDEKAL" D0CTMXES. The doctrine underlying this paragraph of the message is abhorrent to every thinking man of republican feelings. It is essentially the old feudal doctrine of a government represented in the person of the monarch having all the rights, and the subject being the bounden servant, on whom are heaped all the duties. It is essentially the old feudal doctrine that no subject can go from the country where he is without the consent of his master, the government. It is essentially the old feudal doctrine that man is created solely to pay taxes and carry the lance or musket in the service of his owner, the government. It should bring the blush of shame to the face of every true American to hear the President of the Kepublic in this centennial year discuss- ing the question of citizenship from the stand-point of an absolute king. Nay, the relations of the citizen of the United States, whether native or naturalized, to the Government of his country are of a wholly different character than what the President seems to assume. The Government of this country is in the people thereof, under the Constitution, and every citizen, at home and abroad, is an integral part of that Government. The President of the United States, the heads of the various Departments, the Senate, the House of Eepre- sentatives, are only the servants of the people to execute their will. No citizen of the United States owes any higher duty to the Government than he owes to himself. He is personally a part of that Government; even the man who defrauds the revenue only defrauds himself and his fellow-citizens in the end. It is logically said in po- litical economy that the wealth of a nation is composed of the wealth of individuals. Fully to the same extent does republican government rest upon the republican spirit of the citizens who compose, maintain, and direct it, and who really constitute the Government by sending us here to take care of — what ? Of the rights of the Government as a distiuct, separate entity? No; but of the rights and interests of the people, of the aggregate of those who enjoy the proud name of citizens of the United States, wherever they may be on the face of the earth. OUR CITIZENS AliKOAD AND THEIK RELATION. An alien, becoming a citizen of this Republic according to its laws and by the adjudgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, does not by going abroad, no matter where, avoid any duties to the United States. He may not pay taxes nor serve in the Army ; but there are millions upou millions in the country who pay no taxes nor enter the Army, some not even in the militia ; yet they are good, faithful citi- zens. Their will must find expression here'. Hut the men who, on being naturalized, return to their original home, claiming to' be American citizens under the protection of the American Republic— and it is this class about which so much clamor has been raised— may be divided into two categories: one honestly attached to republican principles, the other not, but seeking fraudulently the cover of Ameri- can citizenship to escape some hardships in their native country. As to the latter class, there is a plain legal course open. Any person claiming the protection of American diplomatic or consular represent- atives as a naturalized citizen must, as a universal rule, exhibit an exemplified copy of the decree of the court adjudging him a citizen under the signature and seal of the clerk or prothonotary. If the document be fraudulent on its face or circumstances indicate that fraud had been committed in obtaining it, information to the State Department should at once set in motion the United States attorney for the district where the decree was procured to apply to the same court to have it canceled. The rules of practice, as every lawyer knows, authorize every court to make the required orders for the serv- ice of motion-papers and for taking proof. A single case of the re- scission of a decree of naturalization obtained by fraud, either abso- lute or proven such by subsequent circumstances, would suffice to relieve our representatives abroad of all further trouble. But those who become bona fide citizens, who as the act of 1802 re- quires, " absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty what- ever, and particularly, by name, the prince, potentate, state, or sov- ereignty whereof he was before a citizen or subject," and who also makes oath that he is " attached to the principles of the Constitu- tion of the United States and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same "—when such a naturalized citizen goes abroad even to the country of his birth, we should look upon him as a mis- sionary of republicanism. To the return of thousands of just such men and their more or less protracted residence at the home of their youth, proclaiming themselves in all places and at all times as citizens of this Republic, and in their own persons bearing testimony to the ennobling influences of the democratic system— to such men and to their missionary labors we owe many millions of our most thrifty pop- ulation. Besides, do we not owe them a large share of our miracu- lous growth ? They serve their adopted country well, far better than those who, after accumulating wealth here, go abroad, resume their first allegiance, and become the lick-spittles of aristocracy, or those who born here, and having wealth, go abroad to show everything else but American manners and principles, and who deride and de- fame this country beyond measure. But the naturalized citizen who proves his attachment and fidelity to the United States not only by taking the oath in good faith, but by holding his citizenship dear while abroad, is doing, instead of avoiding, his full duty to the United States, and such men should and must be protected at all hazards. THE AMERICAN DOCTRIXE. In this respect the course of the State Department lias been distin guisned by too much anxiety for technicalities. I disclaim all design of being invidious or personal in this remark ; but the fact is, never- theless, that those in authority allowed themselves to be overmuch beclouded by the old English common law on the question; what Vattel said, and Puffendorf, and Grotius, and other European wri- ters on international law, and what the obiter dicta had been in some of our courts. Never for a moment was the thought, enter- tained of late, that as the American Revolution upset all the old European notions of government, so did it also, in its successful course, establish a new American common law regarding allegiance, expatriation, and naturalization. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have recog- nized substantially the American doctrine enunciated by General Cass ; and if we only persist, all the nations on the globe will do it also. The German Empire is striving hard to prevent it, and the treaty of 1868 Avas but a means to that end. If fears that by obey- ing the treaty of 1828, insuring freedom of residence and security and protection to all American citizens alike, the missionary labors of Americans of German birth would draw hither too many emigrants from that country. A friend has shown me a letter from Bremen, dated December 20 last, which says that peremptory orders are said to have been issued by the minister of commerce at Berlin to all the local agents of transatlantic steamship companies in Germany, that they must, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, give no in- formation about America to any inquirer, but confine themselves to give only the price of passage, names of vessels, and dates of depart- ure. From this, if true, it would seem that America is a forbidden theme, and that even to talk about us in the United States is a pun- ishable offense in Germany. All the greater, therefore, is the reason why we should retaliate by insisting upon the full observance of the treaty of 1828, and demanding that a native German, legally natu- ralized here by a court of competent jurisdiction, returning to Ger- many, returns as an American citizen and in no other character, and remaius such until he shall have voluntarily assumed a new alle- giance. This is the American common law, and should be resolutely maintained not only in respect to Germany, but all nations of Eu- rope. England and Austria have virtually adopted it, and other gov- ernments will follow in time. America was the first to proclaim the principle that free ships make free goods, and by the treaty of Paris of 1856 all Europe accepted it. So will the American doctrine of al- legiance, expatriation, and naturalization be accepted if the repre- sentatives of the American people ar-e faithful to their duty. Then we shall see free American colonies springing up everywhere and dotting every country on the face of the globe, reverencing the flag- that shields and protects them, and bearing witness to the world in a thousand tongues, that to be an American is to be truly a free man ! There is, however, one fundamental objection to the principle which underlies this bill and the argument in its favor. The United States have neither the right nor the power to prescribe where any of their citizens shall reside. If the free movement of the citizen to go where he listed can be restricted in one case it may be restricted in all, and lie would then hold his citizenship and his* personal liberty and inde- pendence at the mere pleasure or caprice of a government that would cease to be republican. It would be to resuscitate the old feudal doctrine of the subject bound to the service of his master, the king; precisely what the German government claims and what the United States have so long and so strenuously resisted. STEIXKAULER CASE. The report upon which this bill is predicated, in its opening para- graphs, says that; " the natural right of emigration affirmed by that treaty, with all the consequences of acknowledging that right, have been fully recognized," and toward the close it is again said that " this treaty recognizes the full right of a German subject to renounce his allegiance to the land of his birth, and through our naturalization laws to acquire a new nationality in the United States." This is true, but only in a very qualified sense, as has been seen in the case of young Steinkauler, whose birth on American soil as the son of an American citizen did not save him from being held as a German sub- ject liable to military duty in spite of the protest of his father, who claimed for him protection by right of his American citizenship. This recognition on the part of Germany of the natural right of em- igration and expatriation resolves itself into this : As long as a native German, naturalized in the United States, remains away from his native laud and beyond the power of its authorities, he is looked upon as an American citizen, and his nationality and protection graciously surrendered to the United States ; but the moment he touches Ger- man soil his original character revives, and thereafter he holds his naturalized citizenship dependent oil the good-will of the German government. That, in a general way, is the kind of recognition which this treaty has secured from Germauy for the principle which Amer- ica has so long maintained, and for which recognition we are re- quested to be so thankful. PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE GERMAN" TREATY. A few words as to the practical working of the treaty in relation to the thousands of German-Americans who annually visit their old country for weeks or months and return to the United States with- out being molested. In his letter to the State Department of June 30, 1874, Mr. Bancroft states their number at " from 10,000 to 15,000" who " come yearly to their mother country now, without suffering the least anxiety, where before many of them, in order to see their friends, were obliged to remain on the other side of the frontier or come into Germany stealthily, running the risk of arrest every hour." This may be so ; but if it proves anything, it only shows that the German or rather the Prussian government has not lived up to its obligations under the treaty of 1828, which insured protection and security to all American citizens sojourning in Prussian dominions, and made no distinction as to the country of their nativity. I am aware, Mr. Speaker, that international law does not relieve an emigrant from the consequences of an offense committed in the land of his birth prior to emigration, when he returns there, after being naturalized in another country; and I know, also, that under Prussian law since 1814, and re-enacted in the penal codes of 1842 and 1851, emigration without permission of the government was an offense punishable witb hue and imprisonment, and subjecting the emigrant to military service at whatever age he may have returned. If the United States are prepared to accept this doctrine of Prussia as valid, then the treaty of 1868 may be defended as a slight concession. But I claim that this country has emancipated itself from this rule of feudalism, and has announced and should maintain the truly Ameri- can principle of international law as to the indefeasible right of emi- gration and expatriation. That doctrine is, no man can be bound iu any service to a government whose citizen or subject he has ceased to be by voluntary naturalization elsewhere. It is this principle that 10 the treaty of 1868 offends against, out'of undue deference to the penal code of Prussia, It is therefore wrong. It is an attempt to assimilate the relations subsisting between the free American citizen and his self-chosen government to those of the Prussian subject to his in- herited and anointed king. In this respect the treaty is essentially un-American, un-republican, and contrary to theprinciples that should guide the intercourse of our people with foreign nations. OUR EARLY POLICY OX IMMIGRATION. The importance of a national and just policy of protection to our citizens abroad needs no extended remark. It has been the true policy of the Government always from the beginning to encourage immigra- tion. Indeed, before we were independent States, it was a complaint against the British king that he discouraged immigration hither It was a capital grievance against King George, formulated in the indictment ot the great Declaration. After the Revolution, and when parties were forming, the hated alien law was a result of the crystallization. The Federal party was its champion ; the democratic party was its opponent. It extended ttie time of naturalization, and would have continued the prescrip- tive policy of King George, against which we contended. In the various questions connecting itself with the war of 1812 and since and down to the Koszta case, the democracy defied foreign ag- gression upon this subject. Our flag was held as a cover and our land an asylum from the persecutions and tyranny of the Old World. The millions who have come to us from Ireland and Germany, as well as from other foreign countries, bringing with them their muscle, mind and means, and declaring their intention to cast their lot and that of their children with us, made it imperative that a system should be instituted having for its basis the recognition of the changes and chances upon our earth by locomotion. Men will come and go. Wars and taxes will be levied. They drive from the roof -tree the children ot every clime. It has been fixed as a rule of democratic action that no backward step should be taken to lessen the name of the American citizen in the world, and no policy started to render less attractive the forces which draw the men of other lands to ours. RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY. Besides this question of proscription, which broke out in Kuovv- JSothing times, is now as then gradually associating itself with sec- tarian matters and all the bitter fruits of such policies. The message ot the President of the United States at the beginning of this Con- gress, the amendment of the present Senator from Maine, [Mr. Blainel now m the Judiciary Committee, and the reference in the republican platform as well as in the letter of acceptance of Governor Hayes, all point with no unmistakable index to a sinister sentiment of religions bigotry. It becomes liberal men to watch it needfully. It is no un- meaning hint that a so-called religious paper gives, when it says that the struggle next fall is of great and far-reaching importance, because the Koman Catholics will be on the one side and all the Protestants worthy of the name on the other. We know what it means when it denounces our Irish and German citizens, and thus lashes passion into wWhlmiS- 0f l'lifstriddeu Irish Roman Catholics aud atheistical Germans have beer I vu ' "'' ^ C ? m ^ a C . entur ^ 8nouer ' a stable republic wonM m^ch strain n^fh likely here than in Mexico ; and the question arises now, How much fctram can the good element in our nation bear ? If these intimations from the political Pharisees have anv si°-niii- cance they point to a coarse, emotional, vindictive campaign which 11 would not only attack religionists of every sect who do not agree with the writers, but would raise a barrier against that thorough unity of sections, religious, and races which is the pride, strength, and glory of our institutions. A BLOW AT IMMIGRATION. Even yet, when the best body and mind of Ireland has been min- gled with that of our own country, and when the Irishman competes with the German in tilling up the vast spaces which our territory al- lows for accession by immigration, it is no mere guess to say that a system of proscription, a svs'tem which would discard naturalization, strikes at one-half of our 45,000,000 of people who are cither by foreign descent or home adoption unbound with our Republic. But it does more, it strikes at the grand future which is in store for us, by which we will be enabled to fill up our immense area of land with useful, industrious, patriotic men. When our nation began its first century it had but a population of 2.750,000. Its area has been extended from 800,000 miles to 3,603,844 square miles. Annexation has quadrupled our area since the Revolu- tion. But with all our purchases of Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, California, and Alaska we gained fewer than 150,000 inhabitants, while the acquisition of Texas and Oregon merely restored to citizen- ship those who had emigated from the United States. In more senses than one, therefore, should we rely upou immigration to develop the vast resources, mineral, agricultural, and manufacturing, which tend to make a country great and prosperous. What a commentary, therefore, in this view is the false platform and narrow policy of the anti-naturalization and anti-immigration party. Since our nation began, frequent efforts have been made by parties, to impede naturalization and to detract from the value of citizeuship when acquired. OllSTKUCTIONS TO NATURALIZATION. Is it not fresh in our recollection that a recent republican Con- gress endeavored to administer upon the estate of its Federal prede- cessor by enactments which obstructed naturalization ? A bill was introduced from the Judiciary Committee which took away from State courts the power to naturalize and vested it in United States courts. It provided that applicants must first file an application with the clerk of the court which should state full particulars of birth, pa- rentage, residence, arrival in the country, &c, and give the names of two citizens who knew him personally, and after four years of sub- sequent continuous residence in the United States, six months of it in the State and thirtv days in the parish where he claims residence, he might be admitted * to naturalization upon proof of all the facts, moral character, &c, by two witnesses. Had this bill become a law, the naturalization of foreign-born citi- zens would have ceased for four years at least. Even those who had made their first declarations under existing laws would have to begin anew under this law, which was framed on purpose to obstruct nat- uralization in every way possible. Applicants would have had so far to go to get naturalised, not to mention the expense of taking wit- nessess with them and the delay and difficulty, that very few would ever have attempted it. . This scheme was not based upon any principle of right, justice, or public welfare, but solelv upon base partisan considerations. It aroused the indignation and excited the execratious of every man pos- 12 sessed of any regard fur common honesty and common decency. It was defeated by democratic vigilance. Easy, indeed, was it to permit tbe millions of African ex-slaves to citizenship and suffrage. Easy, indeed, to hurry them to the polls, however illy prepared for intelligent suffrage, even though horn in Canada or the West Indies; but it was another question" when the , Irishman or German came forward to attest his fidelity to our Gov- ernment and to renounce his allegiance to Queen and Kaiser. The bill referred to as urged upon a recent Congress was intended to interrupt naturalization for four years and six mouths. It was in- tended as a penalty on certain citizens for adhering to democracy. By restricting the authority to grant naturalization to the Federal courts, that measure denied the right to all except those who happen to reside in the vicinity of the places where such courts are held, and denies it even to a majority of those who have that advantage. There are in the United States nine circuit judges ; and generally one district judge in each State, but in some of the larger States two. So small a number of judges could not attend to all the cases of natu- ralization. Naturalizations could be granted only in term time, and the person must apply at least twenty days before the beginning of the term or session of the court. In every case evidence must be heard ; one or more witnesses must be brought by the applicant and examined by the court in relation to the facts and circumstances. And any person who chooses to come into the court and oppose the applica- tion is entitled to offer counter-testimony and produce a set of wit- nesses and have them examined. Each individual case may thus be prolonged into a trial ; and, with so small a number of courts, not a hundredth part of the applications could be heard and decided. OTHER OBSTRUCTIONS TO NATURALIZATION. Other obstructions were contrived by the authors of this bill. The distance which applicants would be compelled to go to attend the court, and the expenses and delay incident to the proceedings, would discourage the greater number. If the applicants should be numerous and the court full with other business the applicant might be detained for weeks with his witnesses; his bills growing, his wages stopped at home, his witnesses accumulating demands against him for their loss of time. He would have to take his turn like grangers at a grist-mill among the applicants. Under such a law naturalization would be so expensive, dilatory, and vexatious that few would apply for it; and this was the object for which this bill was concocted. A DEMAND FOR AMERICAN RIGHTS. Our contiguity to Cuba and the conflicts in that unhappy isle have contributed to many urgent diplomatic efforts to guard our interests and protect our citizens. Out of these efforts came the law of July 27, 186d. (Kevised Statutes, page 352.) It is quoted as a sample of that policy which was the result of democratic success against Fed- eral sycophancy to foreign powers: Sec. 2000. All naturalized citizens of the United. States, while in foreign conn- tries, are entitled to and shall receive from this Government the same protection of persons and property which is accorded to native-born citizens. Sec. 2001. Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty'by or under the authority 13 rf mvforrisn Eovemment, it shall be the duty of the President fpr&witih tode- maffi ttSfwSmamt the reasons of such imprisonment ; and •*&$£"■*» beWonrfol and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the Presld nt ^aTl forth" ih demand the release of such citizen ; and if the release so demanded s unil sonal 1 v e™ v.d or refused, the President shall use such means, not amount- ni to acts of w a he mav think necessary and proper to obtain or eflectuate thl reteatfand klfthe facto and proceedings relative thereto shall as soon as practicable be communicated by the President to Congress. It will thus be seen that by tbis act of Congress the Executive is bound to "demand," not request, not beg, not sue for clemency or re- lief, but "demand" the liberty of the American citizen wrongfully de- tained abroad by foreign power. Without this " demand the polite phrases of diplomacy are of no avail. They are evidences of P^nhty and weakness, unbecoming a nation of a hundred years and utteilj inconsequential for practical remedy of the wrong. Without going further into the history of this and kindred legisla- tion, it may be well to make a comparison of the practice of the two parties in this matter. AM HUSH CASE— CONDON. I refer now to an V ish case - What is its ^story ? Who is Ed- ward O'M. Condon ? The history of the Condon case is the history of a mockery of justice. England herself has admitted that the trial was a farce." The Department at Washington know this fact to be true, and although he is an American citizen, he has been allowed to sink under British imprisonment. . " What is the history of this case? In September, 18b7 Captains Kellev and Desey, two Irish-American officers, were charged with be- ing S a Fenian conspiracy. They were arrested for favoring an inde- pendent, republican Ireland. While being conveyed from Manches- ter to the county jail at Salford they were set at liberty by those who sympathized with them. A policeman was killed by the accxdental discharge of a pistol. Irishmen at that time were arrested every- where in England on suspicion. Among the men seized for the res- cue of Kelley and Desev, was Condon, who was then visiting. friends in Manchester, along with four others, Allen, Larkm, Maguire and O'Brien. He was tried before two unscrupulous judges specially se- lected to convict. On the 2d of November, 1867, they were all con- victed and condemned to death. After convict on the members ot tne press memorialized the home secretary of England for the enlarge- ment of Maguire. There were not five separate verdicts but one ind - visible verdtct, which was clearly illegal. To hang anybody on such I verdict was murder. Maguire received his lberation, and thus the verdict, which was indivisible, was proclaimed a nullity. CONDON— A VICTIM. British opinion at that time demanded some one should be a victim, and although there were many points made it w« ttomtod tomge an example! True Mr. Secretary Seward interfered to save Condon from fhegallows, though the other three, Allen, Larkm, and O'Brien, W The h te^imony -taken in the case shows that Condon was convicted un the testimony of five among a batch of ten proven perjurers. 1 hej were of the most disreputabhTcharacter. It is unnecessary to go into he testimony in detail. The State Department neglected his case and American citizenship seemed to be worth nothing. The eas > con- cerns the dignity and honor of this country. It concerns as much the peSmial liberty of Condon. It is not a question of British clem- 14 ency, but of American national courage. Not hanged, only impris- oned, sinking under the effect of wounds from a cowardly mob and a worse police, with blood flowing from his lacerations under his man- acles, he remains still in British custody, a conspicuous example of foreign perjury, and for his imprisonment no adequate reparation can ever be made. Wbat a commentary on the republican platform at Cincinnati ! It is shrewdly suspected that Condon is kept imprisoned by way of example, and not because he is guilty of any crime against the Brit- ish law. The last message that we hear from him in his imprison- ment speaks a spirit like that of Emmett : " They may kill my body, but they cannot kill the aspirations of my heart or alter its love of country." Looked upon in his prison as an Irish rebel, he has every indignity heaped upon him. We are told that he has one consolation. It is a copy of Virgil's JEneid. He may solace himself with the classics and with other books which his friends have asked for him, but there will be no solace to the American people, whose soldier-citizen he was, until he has a full and ample justification and release. MOCKERY OF ENGLISH JUSTICE. The question may be asked, wherein consists the mockery of this trial ? The answer is that perjury was committed, that prejudice ex- isted at the time in England against all Fenians, and that the trial had a political aspect. And was not this trial ami its results more than a mockery, since this scholar, gentleman, and soldier has been held in durance with the lowest class of English criminals ? The political animus will appear when it is stated that Maguire, a British soldier, was released entirely, while three of his associates in a joint indictment were hung, and the anomalous condition of the case, ow- ing to the combination of all the defendants in the one indictment and trial, makes it clear that it was neither technically legal nor morally just. Condon was a soldier in the Federal Army. He served four years gallantly. After the surrender of General Lee he went to Cincinnati. There he remaiued until 1867. He was sent over to Ireland on business relative to au estate left by his father. He was iu Manchester to see his relatives, and most unfortunately he was there at the time of the rescue of Kelley and Desey and the murder of Sergeant Brett. The trial was as hurried as it was cruel and unfair. Little or no oppor- tunity was given for defense, and shortly after conviction sentence of death was passed. It is the old sad satiric story of the Irish felon before the proverbial select British jury. It is not denied that he was a citizen of the United States, for was he not duly naturalized and in every respect entitled to as much con- sideration under the law of 1868, and our treaty with Great Britain and the law of nations, as a native-born citizen ? Who dare make the distinction ? Ah ! had he been an American native born, or even a British subject and convicted in a British or United States court, would he have been subjected to the injustice of such a trial, the perjury of such a cloud of testifying frauds, and to the degra- dation and incarceration which he has suffered ? In such a case would nine gloomy years have passed over his head, silvering his hair daily for the grave, without some houest effort for his release by a patriotic administration ? In his case what a Mephistophelian sneer curls upon the lip of Disraeli, as he regards our prayer and imbecility before British power and arrogance. 15 AMERICAN INTEREST IN 1KISH PRISONERS. It is not a new thing for the American Government to take an in- terest in Irish prisoners. Every generous heart will recognize the fact that Ireland and her destiny cannot be dissociated from her warm- hearted sons in this country. From the time of Cromwell and his at- tempt to root out the Celtic-Irish with his penalties, down to the pres- ent time, millions of Irishmen have had their property confiscated, their families scattered, and their bodies killed to gratify some un- reasoning and bigoted vengeance on the part of her Anglo-Saxon enemies and rulers. But her spirit has never been conquered. It is impossible for a true Irishman, unless you rend his heart and paralyze his brain, not to love Ireland. _ The people of my district, Mr. Speaker, a large portion of whom are descended of those who emigrated thence, would find me de- relict in my duty did I not sympathize with their sympathy. By cable and steamship and by the thousands of letters and messages of affection, by whole clans and counties, they are interweaving the island of Manhattan with the island of Ireland. This sympathy is quicker than the sub-ocean lightning. It is the instinct of son and daughter for mother and father. It has been enlarged, warmed, and fused into a heavenly radiance. Again and again, are the wrongs of Ireland spoken of mbst significantly in public meetings and at the domestic hearth. The history of Irela ad is not alone the history of her religious taitn, but the history of political independence and civil freedom. Before the time of the Tudors, before the time when the King's writ ran beyond the pale about Dublin, down through harsh penal laws and ecclesiastical establishments, foreign to her best emotions about the seen and unseen world, through evictions, land laws, and trade ex- actions, she has been galled without cowardly wincing, but galled at times into courageous revolt. ENGLISH TYRANNY OVER IRELAND. The injustice of the English government toward Ireland blackens every pao-e of English history. The refinement of legal dialectics and obsolete statutes have been called into being to crush the Mitchels, Meao-hers, O'Briens, Stevenses, Mahoneys, Collinses, Rodgerses, Mc- Caffertys, Mullinses, Rossas, Meaueys, Burkes, McClures, O Connors, and the procession of scholars, soldiers, and patriots, who honor the land of Emmett, Grattau, and O'Connell. The ends of the earth have been used, oftentimes, but, thank God, often invaiii, to colonize them m penal servitude. Not merely Mount Joy,MillBank,andChathampnsons, but the far off South Sea lands under British dominion, have been used to break the spirit of Ireland. The scouring of penitentiary flag-stones, the pickingof English oakum, and the worse humiliationsbranded upon Irish gentlemen and scholars in the living graves of English prisons have wakened a sympathy which the Irish heart will never willingly let die. Out of this sympathy, and not out of defiaut breaches ot in- ternational law, have come the petitions which the American Congress has frequently been called upon to consider on behalf of her citizens immured and transported by English power. ACTION OF CONGRESS FOR IRISH PRISONERS. On the 14th of December, 1869, Mr. Speaker, I offered a resolution in this House relating to the treatment of American citizens then held in prison under English authority, condemning the harsh usage of such prisoners and demanding immediate intervention for their ameliora- tion or release. This was done at the instance of Mr. John Savage, 10 one of Ireland's accomplished sons. On the 2d of February, 1870, the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported back the resolution and asked for information from the State Department. At that time I addressed this House, and begged them to give their moral if not their legisla- tive sanction and emphasis to this most benevolent object. I called to the mind of members, the protest of Gladstone against King Bomba in Naples, in 1851, and how he then demanded for the sake of humanity that the English Parliament and all classes of English society should be aroused for long-suffering and imprisoned young Italy. At that time I alleged what has since proven to be true : that political pris- oners in England suffered from inadequate clothing and food and in- attention of doctors. They were chained to hideous criminals, some foul and idiotic, others beastly and base ; they were compelled to wear the clothing of criminals who had suffered from the most loath- some diseases, and, although they were men of delicate physique, were given tasks only fitted for muscular burglars and common convicts. This treatment was pursued for no other reason than that of humil- iating the generous spirit of the Irish prisoners. Far worse was this treatment than that against which Gladstone protested in Naples." This class of prisoners embraced American citizens by birth and adoption. These tortures drove the piisoners to imbecility, insanity, death, and yet we looked on them and their sad fate without the active intervention of our Government. This is another commentary on the Republican platform. The law of 1868 was then existing. I quoted it then, as now. It was not heeded by the republican party or its organs. It is not heeded now. Some mitigation was made of the condition of these prisoners through the efforts of our minister, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, but as a general rule the Irish-American was left to his fate. Then; sir, from all parts of the land came protests in favor of Cap- tain O'Connor, Colonel Richard Burke, Colonel W. G. Halpin, O'Con- nell, McClure, and others, as this sessiou they have come, for the hapless Condon. But all that could be done in their behalf, if indeed any- thing was done, was the sending of the silent prayer to the God of mercy to relieve from their horrible doom, those brave unfortunates, whose only crime, even as alleged by their enemies, was in loving their sad green isle, not wisely, but too well. THE INDIAN EMPRESS AND HUSH AMNESTY. When recently Mr. Disraeli, the premier of England, proposed to decorate the brow of Queen Victoria with an imperial crown, in which should sparkle all the jewels of her oriental satrapies, it was said that the occasion of such an enhancement of her realm and such a brill- iant accession to her crown would bo followed by an amnesty to Irish political prisoners. These hopes turned out to be a delusion if not a snare. The melancholy fact remains that nothing has been done to relieve these patriotic men from their dire condition. What a commentary, therefore, are these facts on the respective resolutions of the two parties upon this centennial year, regarding the protection of American citizens abroad? Fifteen years of republican rule and scarcely a note of patriotic defiance against British dictation. No case ever attracted such universal sympathy as that of Condon From every State, petitions and from almost every Legislature, reso- lutions came expressing desire for action for his release. ACTION IN CONDON'S CASE. I had the honor on the 9th of March, 1876, to present to this House a resolution based on the law hereinbefore recited. It was not a re- 17 quest for amnesty or clemency. It was a demand, or an inquiry for a demand, for instant release. That resolution .reads thus : Resolved, That the Committee on Foreign Affairs be requested to inquire into the case of Edward O'M. Condon, aliened to be a citizen of the United States, who has undergone for nine years penal servitude in an English prison, and what ef- forts, if any, have been made by the Executive Department to secure his enlarge- ment; aud'if no successful efforts have been made in that behalf, then that said committee examine and report whether or not the case comes under seetions 2000 and 2001 of the Revised Statutes, which provide for the same protection of all nat- uralized citizens while in foreign countries as native-born citizens, and authorize the President to demand of any foreign government the reasons of such imprison- ment and the release of the citizen. It was sent to to the Committee of Foreign Affairs with other res- olutions on this subject. It was reported back, with some modifica- tions. It went to the Senate. There it was weakened and emascu- lated, so as to make it read : Resolved by the Senate and Rouse of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President be requested only to intercede with her Majesty, &c. Finally it passed on the 7th of July. But mark its tame words Whereas Edward O'M. Condon, a citizen of the United States, is now and has been for some time closely confined in prison under the sentence of aBritish court ; and whereas an earnest and profound desire, evidenced by resolutions of State Leg- islatures and petitions numerously signed and addressed to Congress, is enter- tained by a large and respectable portion of the people of the United States that he should be speedily released : Therefore, Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is here- by, requested to take such steps, as in Mb judgment, may tend to obtain the pardon or release of the said Edward O'M. Condon. from imprisonment. Thus Condon is still left to the tender mercies of republican diplo- macy! HOME RULE IN IRELAND. Onr sympathies beloug to Ireland, for our revolution was hers. Ireland, too, had her revolution ; but unsuccessful revolutions are called rebellions ; but did she not contend, and does she not, through Isaac Butts, O'Connor Power, and others, to-day contend for the prin- ciple of her early day when Grattan thundered and Eminett died ? Did she not contend, not alone in her own land, but here, and where- ever the sword of Erin flashed, for the banner above all battle-flags : representation, and no taxation without it. Concord, Monmouth, Saratoga, Valley Forge, Yorktown, all testify of deeds done in liberty's name, but deeds done for man's capacity for home-rule. Jefferson taught the truth, which Irishmen loved to champion, that feudality in form or substance was tyranny ; that absenteeism was robbery ; that vassalage was cowardice, and independence courage ; and that the fire and smoke of war are simple butchery unless beneath there is the pure molten white heat of patriotic devotion. Jealous of power, con- fiding in the people, and instinct with a love of country, he gave his theory and his conduct to the illustration of that heaven- imaged scroll of stars, moving in harmony about the central sun, the type of our stately cluster about the Union and its,splendid ensign. THE DEBT OF AMERICA TO IRELAND. To Ireland, America is indebted as well for her prosperity in a great degree as for her early settlement. After the English revolution of 1688, when the barbarous Orange policy inaugurated by England drove men from their island home, a tide of emigration set in toward the American colonies. Irish trade and manufactures were destroyed and wars and penal laws drove Irishmen across the ocean. They filled our colonies with their emigrants. At least a million of the 2 c 18 throe million who Inhabited the thirteen colonics at the beginning of the Revolution were Irish by birth or descent. They spread and niul- tiplied in our land from the Potomac to the Ohio, from the Saco to the Juniata. They enlivened the land with their humorous spirit, their cheerful industry, and their alacrious belligerency. When in- dependence came to be our only prospect, the first undaunted rebel was John Sullivan, who with his Celtic band marched upon the fort- ress of William and Mary, in New Hampshire, and captured it. This was the first blow of the Revolution. In May, 1775, the O'Briens, six in number, fought the first naval battle of the war, and won it. The names of gallant Irishmen shine like stars all through the murk of the Revolution. To recount them is to recount the stories of Mon- mouth, Saratoga. Bennington, Valley Forge. Stony Point, and York- town. Why, one of the charges against the Irish in England was that 16,000 of them fought on the side of America. This was one of the pretexts for refusing redress to the Catholics of Ireland. A steady influx of immigration since has filled our confines with 14,000,000 of Celtic blood. The names of Barry, Montgomery, Jasper, Warren, Clinton, Rutledge. Wayne, and Jackson but feebly portray the gor- geous galaxy of Irish patriots who gave to America their fervor and their lighting, their bravery and their blood. CENTENNIAL HOPES. In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, while we cannot but notice the growth of bigotry and proscription up to if not in this centennial year ; while we cannot refrain from observing not merely an anti-Catholic but an anti-Hebraic and an anti-constitutional spirit of resistance to the religious and political freedom of this land radiating out of the Fed- eral and into the State constitutions; while we know that, openly and in secret, narrow-minded men are banding and have banded together to turn back the tide of progress which has marked our country since our soul-liberty Constitution was born, still may we not look wdth hope, even if mixed with anxiety, into our future, trusting and believ- ing in the better aspirations of our nature which have found expression in our centennial oratory and poetry, as the splendid confirmation of our Constitution. The key-note of these aspirations may be coldly expressed in the motto which 1 have prefixed to this speech — thai naturalization is empire ! ASSIMILATION OF RACES IX AMERICA. Another thing not less reasonable may be said, that the enormous emigration from Europe has not so tainted our political communities as to call for organized bigotry or retrograde politics ; for is it not easily assimilated with our native stock ? Is it now a strength and not a peril to the Republic ! Are we compelled to stint our welcome to men of all lauds ? Shall we not still hail them and entreat them to share our liberties aud prosperities? Whom have we not welcomed to our soil? The Irishman, the German, the Pole, and the Hungarian, and all the nations of the planet. Here they meet on equal terms. The reflux influence of our welcome is seen most in Ireland, for on the last Fourth of July was not our centennial celebrated in its capital ? Does not our land still represent to the Irishman his ideal of freedom, and does not the voice of Dublin echo that of New York? Oue of our metropolitan orators, Dr. Storrs, held up the a j gis of our Republic, when he said that our policy could never insult other nations or op- press its citizens, and that some Captain Ingraham would always appear to lay his little sloop of war alongside the offending frigate with shotted guns and peremptory summons. And the gifted Evarts could not but notice the various roots and kindreds of the Old World 19 which had settled and transfused in their cisatlantic home into har- monious fellowship in the sentiments, the interests, the affections which develop and sustain love of country in this land. He found the impulse and attractions which moved the emigrants to come hither to he puhlic, elevated, moral, and religions, and that the search for civil and religious liherty had animated Puritan, Church- man, Presbyterian, Catholic, Quaker, Huguenot, Dutch, Waldenses, German, and Swede, and that these made up our colonial population. He further found that our experience and fortunes since then have done nothing to change hut everything to confirm the views which brought them hither. OUR MOSAIC. Mr. Speaker, it is in this mosaic, made up of all races and nations, in which we fiud our growth, happiness, and unity. The streams of thought and feeling from the Old World have made us something more than a congeries of British colonies or a unity of selfish States. Our very motto, "From many, one," indicates the cause of our great- ness as well as of our growth; it speaks of our varied vitality fused with united patriotism. Our centennial poet in singing of the centennial day, its stately dawn, the triumphant noon, and the peace of the vesper skies, could not omit from his lofty verse the splendors of that land which wel- comed cavalier, Huguenot, and Quaker, and which beckoned the chil- dren of the danger-girdled race of Holland to blend their thrift with that native to our soil. The cold processes of our imperial naturali- zation become eagle flights in the muse of our democratic rermblican laureate when he sings: She took what she gave to man : Justice, that knew no station, Belief as soul decreed, Fiee aii- for aspiration, Free for independent deed ! She takes, hut to give again, As the sea returns the rivers iu rain, And gathers the chosen of her seed From the hunted of every crown and creed. Her Germany dwells by a gentler Rhine ; Her Ireland sees the old sunburst shine; Her France pursues some dream divine ; Her Norway keeps his mountain pine ; Her Italy waits by the western brine ; And, broad-based under all, Is planted England's oaken-hearted mood, As rich in fortitude As e'er went worhlward from the island-wall ! Fused in her candid light, To one strong race all races here unite ; Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemen Forget their sword and slogan, kith and clan : 'Twas glory once to be a Roman ; She makes it glory now to be a man ! But no one struck the harp and evoked richer strains of music at rhetoric than the gifted Irish orator Richard O'Gorman, of New York. His language cannot be paraphrased, it can only be quoted : From the thirteen parent colonies thirty-eight great States and Territories have been born. At first a broad land of forest and prairie stretched far and wide, need- ing only the labor of man to render it fruitful. Men came ; across the Atlantic, breasting its storms, sped mighty fleets, carrying hither brigades and divisions of the grand army of labor. On they came, in columns mightier than ever king led to battle, in columns millions strong, to conquer a continent, not to havoc and desolation, but to fertility, and wealth, and order, and happiness. They came from field and forest in the noble German land; from where amid cornfield, and vineyard, and flowers, the lordly Rhine flows proudly toward the 20 sea. From Ireland ; from heath-covered hill and grassy vallev ; from where the eian,t cliffs stand as sentinels for Europe, meet the first shock of the Atlantic and hurl back its surges broken and shattered in foam. From France and Switzer- land, from Italy and Sweden, from all the winds of heaven, they came; and as their ba.ttle-hne advanced, the desert fell back subdued, and in its stead sprang up corn and fruit, and the olive and the vine, and gardens that blossomed like the rose. Of triumphs like these, who can estimate the value, ? The population of three millions a hundred years ago has risen to forty-five millions to-day. We have great cities, great manufactures, great commerce, great wealth, great luxury and splendor. Seventy-four thousand miles of railway conquer distance, and make all our citizens neighbors to one another. All these things are great and good, and can be turned to good. But they are not all. Whatever fate may befall this Republic, whatever vicissitudes or disasters may be before her, this praise, at least, can never be denied to her. This glory she has won forever, that for one hundred years she has been hospitable and generous; that she gave to the stranger a welcome ; opened to him all the treasures of her liberty, gave him free scope for all his ability, a free career and fair play. And this it is that most endears this Republic to other nations and has made fast friends for her in the homes of the peoples all over the earth. Not her riches, not her nuggets of gold, nor her mountains of silver, not her prodigies of mechanical skill, great and valuable though these things be. It is this that most of all makes her name beloved and honored : that she has been always broad and liberal in her sympathies ; that she has given homes to the homeless,' land to the landless ■ that she has secured for the greatest number of those who have dwelt on her wide do- main a larger measure of liberty, and peace, and happiness, and for a greater length of time than has ever been enjoyed by any other people on this earth. For this reason the peoples all over the earth and through all time will call this Republic blessed. It is not possible, Mr. Speaker, to roll back tbe shadow on the dial - plate of time. The snn will not stand still at human voice. This immigration from the Old World, with its thousand elevating and assimilating qualities, will go on. No Bancroft treaties ignoring the rights and principles of American citizenship, no indifference of a republican administration to our citizens abroad and in prison, uo jealousy or hate of the principles of naturalization and religious lib- erty, which give our new Atlantis its imperial scepter, its prosperity, population, and glory, can stop that car of progress which it has ever been the privilege and fortune of the American democracy to impel and control. No sectarian bitterness or bigoted hate can turn away the people of this country from the belief in the principles of religious freedom fixed and eternized down in their organic laws. The election in November will vindicate the large-minded and lib- eral policy of the democracy. It will inaugurate, as in 1787, for America in the next hundred years, a progress rivaling if not surpass- ing that of the past century. God grant that this may be the result ; and God save the Kepublic ! S '1.2