The citizen and the republic

Introduction

THIS volume is intended as a text-book for use in courses in Civil Government in secondary schools. It should foUow, or accompany, a high school course in American History. It is an attempt to answer the demand for that which is needful and important in the "new civics" sometimes called "community civics," and at the same time to hold fast to that which is good in the old.

In introducing an educational reform there is always danger of over-emphasis; there is danger that we may not have a good thing without having too much of it. The authors of this volume, while emphasizing "community civics" and the moral purposes in teaching government, have sought to avoid a one-sided course. They believe that the schools should study the community and such "new civics" as the changing times call for, and especially that they should give attention to current history and present-day problems of democracy; but it is equally important not to neglect certain aspects of the old established order. It may be well to set pupils to the laboratory method of studying the actual life of our city communities, — how milk and water are supplied, how food is distributed, how public health is preserved, how the streets are kept clean (or dirty), how the taxes are raised and used, and how the schools are sustained. But to limit a high school course in civics to such a field of study is to commit a great wrong to young people who are under training for citizenship.

The field of civics is the world. Any course that concentrates the pupils' attention to their own village, city, or State, to the exclusion of the rest of the world, is narrow and foolish. The Constitution of the United States is still in iv INTRODUCTION

running order, and it is still a document worthy of the careful study of all citizens who are to live under it. The State and National Governments under their constitutions, and how these Governments are conducted, are still matters of prime importance for high school study in civil government. Teachers of civics should not be encouraged to neglect these old fields of learning.

We should seek at all times and places and in all courses of study to train the young in social intelligence, social disposition, and social efficiency. Above all, every possible effort should be made to see that young citizens in our schools should be rooted and grounded in the fundamental principles and ideals for which America has always stood, that they may come to understand the foundations of their democracy, the sources of their liberties and the means by which these liberties may be preserved, and the deep significance of American citizenship. This, let us hope, may lead these citizenrulers of America to aspire to such national and international ideals and relationships as will be best calculated to achieve and cherish justice, peace, and democracy throughout the world. This volume is offered as a contribution to this high end.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The American Citizen: His Rights and

Duties i

Appendix

Articles of Confederation — The Constitution of the United States — Statistical Tables

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Liberty Enlightening the World Frontispiece

Candidates for Citizenship Taking the Oath of page

Allegiance facing 4 .

Facsimile of an Australian Ballot " 5

Scientists at Work in Dairy Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture " 80'

Children Working in a Cannery " Si- Employees' Dining Room in an Industrial Establishment " 81

A New England Town Hall " 96

A New England Common " 96/

County Court House, Memphis, Tennessee " 97

County Court House, Mobile, Alabama " 97

A Road before and after Improvement " 106

Beginners' Class in a Moonlight School, Knox County,

Tennessee " 107

City Hall, Oakland, California " 132

Seward Park Playground, New York City " 133

Lincoln Park, Chicago " 133

At the Milk Station, Mt. Morris Park, New York City. " 136

A City Dispensary " 136

Soldan High School, St. Louis, Missouri " 137

New Central Library BuUding, Indianapolis " 137

State Capitol, St. Paul, Minnesota " 150

State Capitol, Albany, New York " 150

House of Representatives of State Legislature in

Session, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania " 151

A Court Room for the Trial of Cases " 158

Prisoners Exercising in a Prison Yard " 158

Facsimile of a State Law " 159

Executive Building, Honolulu, Hawaii " 170

Federal Building, San Juan, Porto Rico " 170

Government Building, Manila, P. I " 170

Paying $25,000,000 for the Danish West Indies, March,

1917 " 171

Receipt for the $25,000,000 Paid for the Danish West

Indies " 171

Facsimile of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution . " 192

RepubKcans Nominating a Presidential Candidate ..." 224

Democrats Nominating a Presidential Candidate ..." 225

Presidential Campaigning in the West " 230

A Political Parade " 230

Crowd in Longacre Square, New York City, Reading the

Election Returns " 231

The White House, Washington, D. C " 234

The Executive Offices, Adjoining the White House. . . " 234

vii viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A Corner of the President's Study in the White House . facing 235 President Wilson Taking the Oath as President on the

Steps of the Capitol " 238

A Presidential Proclamation •. . " 239

The Senate Chamber, Capitol Building, Washington,

U. S. Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C " 259

The Opening of a Session of the House of Representatives " 282

A Congressional Committee in Session " 283

Office Building of the House of Representatives . . . . " 283

Facsimile of a Federal Law " 290 and 291

Capitol Building, Washington, D. C " 302

President's Room at the Capitol, Washington, D. C. . " 303 President Wilson Reading a Message to tire Joint Houses

of Congress " 306

A Meeting of President Wilson and his Cabinet .... " 307

An American Passport " 310 and 311

State, War, and Navy Departments, Washington, D. C. " 312

Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C " 312

Patent Office, Washington, D. C " 312

The Treasury Department, Washington, D. C " 313

A Silver Vault, U. S. Treasury, Washington, D. C. . . " 313

Chamber of the Supreme Court of the United States . " 330

Clearing House, New York City " 344

Custom House Officers Examining Baggage at a Steamship Pier " 345

Government Inspection of Groceries at Custom House,

Pan-American Building, Washington, D. C " 368

Recognition of the German War against the United

States " 369'

MAPS AND CHARTS

Diagram of Increase of Population in United States . . " 33

Direct Democracy " 42

Specimen Short Ballot for a City Election " 46

Ballot Illustrating Preferential Voting " 55

A Health Message to the People _. . " 67

Diagram of Increase and Decline of Immigration since

Chart Illustrating Extent of Immigration for Ten Years

Per Cent of Foreign-Born Whites, etc., in United States,

1910 " 71

City Expenses and City Debt " 119

Simplicity of Present Charter Compared with Old Way

in Spokane, Washington " 127

A Gerrymandered State " 273

The Field of Congressional Government " 298

CHAPTER I Who are Citizens

A CITIZEN is a member of the nation who owes the nation allegiance and is entitled to its protection. Under the Old Confederation (i 781-1789) there were no citizens of the ^*^*® United States; the people were citizens of the several States. National The United States had nothing to do with citizens; it dealt Citizenship with States. The nation had yet to grow. The central Government, under certain circumstances, might act on behalf of a State's citizen, but it was understood that citizenship was entirely a State matter. Even after the Constitution was adopted there were doubts and arguments as to who were citizens of the United States and by what authority they became such. It was contended by those who held to the compact view of the Constitution that one could be a citizen of the United States only by having a local citizenship in some State or territory; that there was no such thing as a citizenship at large, without a local citizenship, like being a sort of citizen of the world.^

This States rights view of citizenship, expressed by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, while it recognized the right of Massachusetts or Vermont or any other State to confer the rights and privileges of its own State citizenship upon the negro, asserted that these rights and privileges

1 Calhoun on "The Force Bill," Works, Vol. II, p. 242. I i THE CITIZEN AND THE REPUBLIC

would be restricted to the State which gave them. The State could not make him a citizen of the United States or give him a right to become a citizen of any other State. The Court asserted tliat a man of African descent and slave birth could not, under the Constitution, become a citizen of the United States.

It was evident that citizenship ought to be made certain;

that it should be determined by some common authority.

DefinitioQof 3q after the Civil War, when the slaves had been set free

American ...

Citizenship by and the national view of citizenship and the Constitution had the 14th prevailed, in order to settle all controversy and to give equal

Amendment . . . J b ^

rights to all men alike, white or black, the Constitution was amended and for the first time clearly defined American citizenship :

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

This is a part of the Fourteenth Amendment and it makes clear who are citizens of the United States. No State has any right to deny the privileges of its citizenship to any American citizen, of whatever creed, color, or nationality. "Born in the United States" is broadly construed. A child of an American ambassador, if born in the ambassador's residence in a foreign country, is considered a "natural born" citizen of the United States, as also would be a child born to an American sea captain on his vessel in a foreign port. A national vessel is like "a bit of the national soil afloat." Also all children born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States whose fathers are American citizens at the time of the children's birth are declared to be citizens of the United States. If they continue to reside abroad they must, upon reaching the age of i8, register their intention to remain citizens and become residents of the United States and at 21 they must take the oath of allegiance to the United States.

But the rights of citizenship do not descend to children whose fathers have never resided in the United States.^ Children born of aHens in the United States are citizens of the United States unless and until they renounce their citizenship by expatriation.

Ways of Acquiring Citizenship

An alien woman if married to an American citizen (native or naturalized) becomes thereby herself a citizen. The wife is by law a citizen of her husband's country. Therefore when an alien husband becomes naturalized his acquired citizenship carries with it citizenship for his wife, provided she belongs to the classes allowed by law to become citizens of the United States. The wife has no necessity to apply for naturalization, though an unmarried woman may do so. On the other hand, if an American woman, being a citizen, marries an alien she loses her American citizenship. By widowhood or divorce she may recover her American citizenship, by her own declaration.^

Children follow the political conditions of the parents. A minor child becomes naturalized or expatriated by the parents' action. If an alien who has begun the process of naturalization should die before he is actually naturalized, his widow and children are considered as citizens of the United States, upon their taking the prescribed oaths. A naturalized citizen who returns to the country from which he came, after two years' residence there, loses his citizenship, unless he makes a declaration of his desire to retain it before the proper consular or diplomatic officer.

Some are born citizens, others acquire citizenship. The population of a country consists of citizens and aliens. Naturalization is the process by which aliens become citizens. In order to become naturalized the alien applicant for American citizenship must "declare his intention" at least two years

1 Act of Congress, 1855, Revised Statutes, Section 1993. ^ A bUl has been introduced into Congress (1918) allowing a married woman to act for herself and choose her own citizenship.

Citizenship of Women

Citizenship of Children

Naturalization

Some Aliens are barred from Naturalization before citizenship can be fully acquired. To do this he must go before a Court of Record (State or Federal) in some state and take an oath to the effect that he is at least eighteen years of age and that he desires to become a citizen of the United States; he must then renounce all allegiance to any foreign country of which he has been a subject, and give up all claim to any title of nobility which he may have possessed ; he must take the oath of allegiance to the United States and swear fealty to our Constitution and our laws, and he must inform the court on certain matters touching his birth, past life, and immigration to America. He is then given his "first papers," and when he has resided in the United States for five years and fulfilled the necessary qualifications as to character he is given a certificate of naturalization which makes him a citizen. By the law of 1906 the alien, in order to be naturalized, must be able to write his own language and be able to read and speak English.

Certain foreigners are prevented from acquiring American citizenship by naturalization. Only Caucasians and Africans are given the privilege, only "free white persons" and "persons of African nativity and African descent." We go to the extremes in colors, including the whites and the blacks, but leaving out the yellows and the browns. This seems like an absurd distinction in our law. Yet no Asiatics may be naturalized. No Mongolians or Malays, Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, or East Indians can become citizens of the United States unless they are born here or are permitted to become citizens by a special act of Congress. The Turk is not excluded or the Armenians, and an exception has been made in favor of the Filipinos and Samoans. Polygamists, anarchists, and certain other classes of criminals may not be naturalized; they are not considered worthy of our citizenship.^

^ The Bureau of Naturalization recommends ability to speak the English tongue as a prime requisite in training the alien population in American citizenship. "It is through this medium alone that aliens can acquire a practical knowledge, both in and out of the schools, of our

P 3

K H

1-1. >-(

P Cj'

Facsimile of an Australian Ballot, National and State Ticket

There are other ways of acquiring citizenship than by birth and naturaHzation. When the United States acquires territory it may confer citizenship upon the whole body of people residing therein. This may be done by the treaty Citizenship in

of acquisition, or by an act 01 Congress. Citizenship was Territories guaranteed by the acquiring treaty to the inhabitants of Louisiana (1803), of Florida (1819), of California and the Mexican Cessions (1848), Alaska (1867), and in igoo an act of Congress provided that all persons who were citizens of Hawaii at the time of its acquisition by the United States (1898) should be admitted to citizenship. The inhabitants of Porto Rico and the Philippines were not made citizens in the treaty following the Spanish- American War (1898), but the Porto Ricans by an act of Congress signed by President Wilson March 2, 191 7, were made American citizens, and this could be done by Congress for the Philippines at any time. The Constitution does not "follow the flag" of its own strength {ex propio vigor e), in the way of extending citizenship over acquired peoples, but a treaty law or a law of Congress is required to incorporate a territorial group of alien people into our body politic. Congress has repeatedly conferred citizenship upon whole tribes of Indians on breaking up their tribal relations. An American may renounce his citizenship and become a citizen or subject of a foreign power. "Once a citizen always a citizen" was a familiar saying a hundred years ago. It meant that citizenship was indelible, — it could not be erased, Citizensiiip destroyed, or renounced. The idea was opposed in America Expatriation" as it was desired to have Europeans become naturalized in the United States. Great Britain favored the principle, as she wished to maintain a claim upon the services of her citizens.

institutions. This will lay the necessary foundation for instruction in some simple outline of American civics, the duties and the obligation as well as the privileges and immunities of American citizenship. Above all they should be taught that the supreme authority in this country is the law and that the first duty of an American citizen is obedience to that law."

Now most European nations admit the right of expatriation, that is, the right of a citizen or subject to renounce his country and become the adopted citizen of another country. This is agreed to by treaties between nations.

"Dual Nationality" or "Double Allegiance"

Different countries have different laws relating to nationality and allegiance. On this account the terms "dual nationality" and "double allegiance" have been used in international law. May a citizen's allegiance and service be claimed by two countries? This would seem to be inconsistent, if not absurd. As a man cannot serve two masters, so two nations may not claim a citizen's allegiance. No person can be a citizen of two countries.

But there is a conflict of laws on this subject which has given rise to much discussion. Each nation claims the right to determine for itself, according to its own constitution and laws, what class of persons shall be entitled to its citizenship and whose allegiance it will claim. Our constitution says that all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States whether born of parents who are citizens or aliens. But Germany claims as German subjects the children of German subjects wherever they may be born, and by a German law of 1 91 3 that country encourages Germans who go to other parts of the world to retain their allegiance to Germany, even though they may go through the form of offering their allegiance to another nation. Also the French Civil Code claims as Frenchmen "every person born of a Frenchman, in France or abroad." The French law of citizenship is not territorial but national. France applies the law of race or blood {jus sanguinis), while the United States applies the law of the land or the place {jus soli).

Thus may arise a conflict of claims. In case of an American child born in France and of a French child born in America there may be a claim of a double citizenship or double allegiance. Both countries may claim both children. The French boy, born in America and grown to manhood, if he should go to France might be claimed and forced into military service by that country, from which his American citizenship, acquired by birth in this country, might not be able to protect him. Our Department of State recently said to a young man born of French parents in New Orleans who wished to know if his American citizenship would protect him from compulsory military service in France if he should go to that country, "It thus appears that you were born with a dual nationality, French under French law, American under American law, and the Department cannot therefore give you any assurance that you would not be held liable for the performance of military service in France, should you voluntarily place yourself within French jurisdiction."

These conflicting claims to allegiance should be settled by neighborly international agreements. Japan has passed such a law, releasing from allegiance Japanese born in other „ ^ . lands. It is a friendly act toward the United States, doing one Allegiance away with the evil of double allegiance. Each country should provide a way by which a child born in a foreign country should become a citizen of that country if he remains there. Or, a conflict might be avoided by the acceptance of the idea that "the duties of allegiance are determined by the laws of that one of the two countries in which the citizen actually is; or that a child in attaining his majority has the right to elect which of the two allegiances he will retain, and this election he should be required to make."

It is certain that a "double allegiance" cannot be tolerated in America. Subjects of European nations who come to this country, take the oath of allegiance to America and become naturalized citizens cannot be allowed to acknowledge allegiance to any European nation. Such "hyphenated citizens" would be dangerous in any country. Loyalty to America is expected of all.

America contends, as it has always contended, for the doctrine of voluntary expatriation and that an European who has migrated to this country and become a citizen here owes allegiance to America only. And their children born in this country owe their first and only allegiance to America. To admit a "double allegiance" in such cases would be to deny the validity of the long-standing American position against the doctrine, "Once a citizen always a citizen." A citizen of America may forswear his allegiance and become a citizen of another country. His status and allegiance would then be clear. Likewise, when aliens become citizens of the United States by naturalization they forswear their old allegiance and take on a new. They may not acknowledge both. So, when the government of Austria-Hungary forbade former subjects of that country who had been naturalized in America, to work in American munition factories, or when it was stated that under the German law of nationality (of

January i, 1914) Germans who may have acquired naturalization in America may under certain conditions retain their

German allegiance, these powers made a demand that no foreign nation had any power to enforce or any right to claim. Foreigners living and working in America without having been naturalized are subject to the call of their former government only to the extent that they themselves may voluntarily recognize; no foreign government can exercise jurisdiction or in any way compel any action over aliens while they are domiciled in this country. "Every independent State has, as one of the incidents of its sovereignty, the right of legislation and jurisdiction over all persons within its territory," and no sovereignty can extend its jurisdiction beyond its own territorial limits.^

^ Secretary Fish to the President, August 25, 1873, Foreign Relations, 1873; II, 1186, 1191-1192. On this subject of "Double Nationality" or "Double Allegiance," see John Bassett Moore's International Law Digest, Vol. Ill, pp. 518-551. Also report on "Citizenship of the

The Republic can recognize in its citizenship but one standard, — the standard of loyalty to one country, one government, one flag, one allegiance. This unity and loyalty in citizenship requires but one language, "the language of the Declaration of Independence, of Washington's Farewell Address, of Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech."

"Americans are the children of the crucible. From the melting pot of life in this free land all men and women of all nations who come hither emerge as Americans and nothing else. They must have renounced completely and without reserve all allegiance to the land from which they or their forefathers came. And it is a binding duty on every citizen of this country in every important crisis to act solidly with all his fellow Americans, having regard only to the honor and interest of America, treating every other nation purely on its conduct in that crisis, without reference to his ancestral predilections or antipathies. If he does not so act he is false to the teachings and the lives of Washington and Lincoln; he is not entitled to any part or lot in our country and he should be sent out of it." ^

The " Children of the Crucible": the " Melting Pot "

United States," House Document, No. 326, 59th Congress, 2d Session, 1906. This Report prepared for Congress by James B. Scott, Solicitor of the Department of State, David Jayne Hill, Minister to the Netherlands, and Gaillard Hunt, Chief of the Passport Bureau, recognized the "dual allegiance and conflict of citizenship" to which the text refers, but it did not prescribe a plan for settling questions of double nationality beyond recommending a law requiring persons born abroad of American citizens who should elect American citizenship rather than that of the country of their birth to make a formal declaration to that effect before an American consul upon reaching the age of eighteen years, and to take the oath of allegiance to the United States upon reaching twenty-one. This is now required. Richard W. Flournoy, Chief of the United States Bureau of Citizenship in the Department of State at Washington,- had an article on "Problems of Dual Nationality" in the Ne'iv York Times of September 12, 1915, Magazine Section. See also, "When is an American not an American?" by Theodore Roosevelt in Metropolitan Magazine for June, 1915.

^ Theodore Roosevelt, in The Children of the Crucible.

Citizenship and Suffrage

Who are Voters?

Fifteenth Amendment

All Citizens are not Voters: All Voters are not Citizens

Voters are those who take part in elections to choose the ofiScers of the government or who, by the expression of their opinion or desire at the ballot box, help to determine the government's poUcy. Voting has always been determined by the State, not by the United States. It was not until after the Civil War that any restriction was placed on the State in this respect; then by the Fifteenth Amendment it was decreed that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." This was to prevent the Southern States from denying suffrage to the blacks who had been made citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment, and who had been made voters in the seceding States by the Reconstruction Acts of Congress as a condition of the readmission of the ex-confederate States into the Union. The Fourteenth Amendment left suffrage entirely to the States, but it offered a premium for negro suffrage by providing that if any State denied the suffrage to any United States citizen above 21 (except for crime or participating in the Rebellion), its representation in Congress should be reduced accordingly. Barring these provisions of the Constitution, every State is free to make its own suffrage laws.

Citizenship and voting do not necessarily go together. All citizens are not voters. Some States have given full suffrage to women. In other States women citizens may vote in local school elections, or on certain tax questions, or for ofl&ces not created by the State constitution, while in still other States women are not allowed to vote at all. Children are citizens, but they are not allowed to vote in any State because they are still under the control of others.

Just as all citizens are not voters, so some voters are not citizens, since in some States aliens who have merely declared their intention to become citizens are allowed to vote. This

THE AMERICAN CITIZEN: HIS RIGHTS AND DUTIES II is true in eleven States, — Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin. A residence requirement of from six months to two years is imposed. It would seem that a State should require a voter to be a full-fledged citizen of the United States. Many thousands of foreigners under the influence of poUtical workers "declare their intention" merely for voting purposes without completing or really intending to complete their naturalized citizenship.

It is important always to keep in mind that the States determine who may vote. A State could allow boys of eighteen to vote or not permit men to vote until they are twenty-five, though the loss of representation in Congress required in the The states Fourteenth Amendment might be imposed for such a restriction, p^^ege of Who may vote for President and Vice President and members Voting of Congress, as well as for all State officers, depends entirely upon the constitution and laws of the State. The only thing the Constitution of the United States says about the suffrage (apart from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, to which we have referred) is that those persons may vote who are qualified to vote for "the most numerous branch of the State legislature." When the Constitution was made it was not expected that the people would be allowed to vote for President and Vice President and United States Senators; so in dealing with the suffrage the Constitution referred only to voters (electors) in their choice of the House of Representatives. But the rule for voting mentioned above has always held good.

All the States require their voters to be twenty-one years of age. Connecticut requires an educational test; there no one may vote who cannot write his name and read a section of the Constitution and laws in the English language. Some States require a poll tax, varying from fifty cents to two dollars. Most States require a registration of the voters. Some of the Southern States have required certain property and educational qualifications as a means of preventing the