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Secretary of one of the States.

Vol. iv, p. 61,

evidence for the location of land secured by college script of Tennessee, the entry upon which was made in 1871. To the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

I have to inform you that the certificate of the secreof state of Texas does not suffice in place of the naturali

Apr. 18, 1873. zation paper.

election.

Vol. iv, p. 203.
Aug. 5, 1873.

Certificate of The certificate of election and that of the county clerk with reference to the husband's citizenship do not suffice in place of the naturalization papers. If you will state the time at which the paper was filed in the General Land Office, the Department will make inquiry respecting it, and thus perhaps be able to settle the question of citizenship in accordance with existing regulations.

Destroyed certificate.

Vol. ii, p. 274,
Mar. 1, 1872.

Vol. ii, p. 369,

Apr. 2, 1872.

I have to inform you that his certificate of naturalization is required to complete the application. If this paper has been destroyed by fire, it is presumed that Mr. Heimann may procure a duplicate or certified copy thereof on application to the court from which it originated.

You are right in supposing that similar instances have been brought to the attention of the Department of the destruction of the original naturalization papers by fire, and at Chicago the destruction of the records of the court, making it impossible to obtain new certificates of the records of naturalization.

The Department can not undertake to lay down in express terms any simple rule to govern matters of this kind. In the cases in which passports have been granted, the Department has acted upon satisfactory evidence of the fact of the naturalization of the applicant at a date stated in his application. Sometimes testimony is produced from the parties who were witnesses of the naturali

zation. In other cases citizens known to the Department have furnished affidavits of the facts. It is sometimes not difficult for applicants to furnish evidence that they have voted at certain elections in which only duly naturalized citizens could lawfully take part. It is believed that any citizen, honestly and truly naturalized, who has fulfilled in good faith all the duties of citizenship for a period of years, will not be unable to furnish evidence satisfactory to the Department of the fact of his naturalization and citizenship. Whatever evidence to this effect you may be able to offer will be carefully examined.

court record.

Apr. 26, 1875.

The criminal court of Cook County, Illinois, has within Restored the present month taken action in cases of this character, vol. v, p. 371, whereby, upon the applicant's petition and affidavit, supported by adequate testimony, he has procured an order of the court recognizing his citizenship and been furnished with the documentary evidence required to support his application for a passport.

p. 289,

I have to say that when no certificate or record of the Vol. viii, Mar. 27,1883. naturalization is extant the remedy consists in applying to a court of record for an order and certificate recognizing the citizenship upon such proof as the party is able to furnish. This is the proper way to make competent proof available and meet the requirements of existing regulations in regard to passports.

naturali

Vol. x, p. 185,

Your claim to citizenship rests entirely upon the alleged Father's citizenship of your father. The main evidence in regard zation. to his citizenship is simply the statement in his affidavit, Dec. 17, 1887. dated October 20, 1869, that he was at the time a citizen of the United States and had been such since the year 1844. If, as appears from your statements, you were under the age of eighteen years when you came to reside

Voting.

Certificate ubiquitous.

For. Rels., 1888, p. 511.

in the United States, you can, under provision of section 2167 of the Revised Statutes, obtain naturalization in your own name immediately upon making the requisite declaration and proofs before the proper court, and thus be able to perfect your application for a passport without regard to your father's nationality.

The fact that you have voted at regular elections in the United States can not be accepted as conclusive proof of citizenship. The Department is in frequent receipt of positive evidence that parties have voted for years who were not citizens, although they may have honestly believed themselves to be such. With regard to the passport issued to you by the legation of the United States at Mexico in December, 1874, it would appear, from your present statements, that you could not at that time have furnished better proofs than those which the Department now deems entirely insufficient.

It is a well-settled principle that judgments duly entered in a competent court having jurisdiction, duly certified to be such by the executive, are ubiquitous in their effect; and eminently is this the case with judgments of naturalization, which are bound up so intimately with national honor and polity. Hence it is that it has been uniformly held by the Department that while, on the application of a foreign government, it will cause inquiries to be made as to whether a judgment of naturalization was improvidently granted, and while it will never permit itself to grant protection based upon a naturalization decree which is shown to it to be fraudulent, it will not recognize a foreign government's right to impeach such decrees. When set up by it as the basis of its action towards a foreign state, it can not recognize the right of any foreign executive or court to determine as to their validity. That determination must be made, so far as

concerns foreign governments, exclusively by itself.-Mr. Bayard to Mr. McLane, February 15, 1888.

certificate.

1. Is a passport to be refused to the wife or widow of a Loss of naturalized citizen who has not the naturalization papers For. Rels., of her husband?

2. Is a passport to be refused to a naturalized citizen who has left his naturalization papers at home, or who has lost them? * * *

In all cases arising under the first and second questions as quoted above the legation should require the original certificate or a duly certified copy thereof to be produced as the best evidence of citizenship. If the applicant shall be unable to produce a certificate of naturalization or a certified copy thereof, then the naturalization certificate, like all other records, may be proved by parol, but, to admit parol proof of it, the following conditions must exist:

1888, p. 542.

evidence.

(a) The prior existence of the certificate must be shown. Secondary (b) If burned or otherwise destroyed, such destruction of the certificate must be proved.

(c) If lost, diligent but ineffectual search for it must.

be shown.

(d) Parol proof of a lost or destroyed certificate should not be received if the original record of naturalization, of which a certified copy could be procured, is attainable. A party who can not produce his naturalization certificate can not supply it by parol proof, unless he also proves that the original record of the naturalization is unattainable and can not be reproduced by a certified copy.-Mr. Bayard to Mr. Vignaud, June 13, 1888.

record.

Having been born in Ireland and not personally natural- Destroyed ized in the United States, you claim American citizenship Vol. x, p. 414, through the naturalization of your father. The record,

June 5, 1890.

however, of his naturalization is not produced, since it is said to have been destroyed by fire in Columbia, South Carolina. From the absence of that record, other information in regard to this naturalization is also lacking, such as the time at which it was done and the court in which it was effected.

I exceedingly regret that the Department, which would be glad to avoid any objection to complying with your application, finds itself unable to take any action on the matter as it now stands. Such has been the invariable view of the Department, to which no exception is known, as to its functions in cases presenting the same general features as your own.

Where citizenship of the United States is sought to be derived from naturalization, the original or a copy of the decree of naturalization duly authenticated under the seal of the court issuing it is the customary and competent evidence of naturalization. In cases of the loss or destruction of the record, it is requisite that proof of such loss or destruction should be made, and, if it can not be supplied, a new naturalization would seem to be the obvious and most effective means of meeting the necessities of the case.

The Department has uniformally held that the appropriate course for a person seeking to establish naturalization by other than the ordinary proofs is to resort to the judicial branch of the Government, which is exclusively charged with authority to naturalize aliens, and which is invested with the necessary powers for investigating and determining matters of fact which are essential to the acquisition of citizenship. It is upon the judgment of the court, duly promulgated and recorded in accordance with law, that the Department acts, and it has never been held to be authorized to act on any other basis.

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