feet years, inches, the United States of America, and producing proof of his 18 years of age. Vol. i, p. 106, Your letter of the 29th instant asking for information Minor under in regard to the naturalization of persons who may have arrived in this country during their minority, accompanied Nov. 30, 1861. by a copy of Judge Hilton's decision in the case of William Morrison, has been received. In reply, I have to state that the section of the act of May 26, 1824, seems fully to meet the case to which you refer. By the provisions of the section referred to, a person who may have arrived in this country during his minority may become a citizen of the United States, independent of the fact of his father's naturalization, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years and after he shall have lived five years within the United States, without making the usual declaration of intention two years before his admission. Any such person, therefore, can present himself before any of the courts and procure his certificate of naturalization, at any time, provided he makes "the declaration required in the first A P -8. 28 Stat., 124. Mother's naturalization. Apr. 25, 1872. condition of the first section of the act of April 14, 1802, and further declare, on oath, and prove to the satisfaction of the court that for three years next preceding it has been his bona fide intention to become a citizen of the United States," and shall in all other respects comply with the laws in regard to naturalization. Any alien of the age of twenty-one years and upward who has enlisted or may enlist in the United States Navy or Marine Corps, and has served or may hereafter serve five consecutive years in the United States Navy or one enlistment in the United States Marine Corps, and has been or may hereafter be honorably discharged, shall be admitted to become a citizen of the United States upon his petition, without any previous declaration of his intention to become such; and the court admitting such alien shall, in addition to proof of good moral character, be satisfied by competent proof of such person's service in, and honorable discharge from, the United States Navy or Marine Corps. I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 19th instant, in which you make inquiry as to the value of the Vol. ii, p. 419, mother's certificate of naturalization in the application for a passport of a person of foreign birth whose father died without having procured complete naturalization papers, but whose mother was duly naturalized while yet a widow and while the applicant was a minor. Married women. For. Rels., In reply, I have to state that in such case the mother's naturalization papers would suffice in place of the father's. In an opinion, June 4, 1874 (14 Op. Att. Gen., 402), Attorney-General Williams, responding to inquiries put by Mr. 1893, P. 599. Fish, then Secretary of State, recites the above opinion and also two others (one being a North Carolina decision), and concludes that the authorities he cites "go to the extent of holding that, irrespective of the time or place of marriage or the residence of the parties, any free white woman, not an alien enemy, married to a citizen of this country, is to be taken and deemed a citizen of the United States." Although not questioning the doctrine thus broadly enunciated, yet, in view of the obstacles to claiming for the laws, judicial decisions, and executive opinions of the United States effective validity beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, this Department prudently refrains from asserting its application to the case of an alien wife continuing within her original allegiance at the time of her husband's naturalization in the United States, inasmuch as the citizenship of the wife might not be effectively asserted as against any converse claim of the soveignty within which she has remained. The result would naturally be a conflict of private international law, wherein the state within whose actual jurisdiction the wife remains might be found to have the practical advantage of the argument. Mr. Foster to Mr. Thompson, February 9, 1893. evidence of citizenship. For. Rels., First. It is conceded that the passport of the citizen of Passport either government, native or naturalized, not bearing upon its face the insignia of its own invalidity, can not be 1894, P. 37. called in question by the municipal, district, and inferior officers of the [Austrian] government, but that such paper is prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated and must be respected as such. If the subordinate officers of the government have suspicions of the fraudulent character of the paper presented, they may report the fraud or irregularity alleged to some tribunal, if any, having competent authority under the rules of international law to determine the same. Second. That it is the duty of either government, if its properly constituted tribunal shall be satisfied that the Passport evidence of citizenship. For. Rels., 1895, P. 19. certificate of naturalization upon which the passport was based was fraudulently or illegally procured, to present such consideration to the government granting the same, with the request that an examination be had, and, if the fact be found that such certificate of naturalization was fraudulently or illegally obtained, that it be canceled or annulled. Third. That the arrest or detention of a citizen bearing a passport of his government, issued by competent authority, by a subordinate officer of either government is a breach of the courtesy due to a friendly nation, and a breach of official duty on the part of the officer so offending. Fourth. That consular and other representative officers of the United States have the right to intervene for the protection of American citizens so unlawfully arrested.Mr. Tripp to Mr. Gresham, August 23, 1894. It appears from the correspondence that Solomon Czosnek was born in Chrzanow, in the province of Galicia, of Austrian parents, in 1873. His father went to the United States and was naturalized while Solomon was a minor. In 1895 Solomon went to Chrzanow on business, having provided himself with a passport from this Department. He was arrested for violating military law in evading service, was bound over to the district court to answer the criminal charge, and through your intervention he was discharged. The case is a valuable one, because in the Benich case and other cases the authorities of Austria-Hungary, while admitting that a passport of a friendly nation is prima facie evidence of citizenship and must be respected by administrative officers, have suggested that judicial officers might act in disregard of it. In this case you contended that when there is no charge of fraud in the procurement of a passport or as to the identity of the person presenting it, it must be respected by judicial as well as administrative officers, and the correspondence shows that this view was shared by the Austro-Hungarian minister, who instructed the attorney to dismiss the complaint, and added that hereafter the judicial authorities of Galicia would be instructed to be governed in all similar cases by the views expressed in your notes.-Mr. Adee to Mr. Tripp, August 12, 1895. woman. P. 194, Referring to your letter of April 30, asking whether the Married daughter of a naturalized citizen of the United States who Vol. xiv, has married an alien may obtain a passport through her May 2, 1896. father's citizenship, you are informed that, inasmuch as a woman's citizenship follows that of her husband, she is not a citizen of the United States and can not, under the law, receive a passport. memoran He was born in Germany in 1877 of alien parents. His Solicitor's father having died, his mother came to the United States dum, 1896. with the son in 1885, and she has since been married to a naturalized citizen of the United States. Section 2172 of the Revised Statutes provides that "the Minor child. children of persons who have been duly naturalized under the law of the United States * * * being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of the naturalization of their parents, shall, if dwelling in the United States, be considered as citizens thereof." The only question seems to be whether the mother by her marriage to an American citizen became duly naturalized under any law of the United States. Section 1994 of the Revised Statutes provides that "any woman who now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the United States, and who might herself be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a citizen." |