be considered in the chapter relating to that department of the government. This article is inserted here for the purpose merely of classifying the subject of it among the powers of Congress. These inferior tribunals consist of circuit and district courts.

§ 2. Congress has the power to determine by law where the trials of crimes shall be held which are not committed within any State. Although crimes committed within any State are to be tried in the State where they are committed, yet they may be committed on the high seas, or within the limits of unorganized Territories. This clause of the Constitution gives Congress the power to provide for such cases.

§ 3. The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is subject to such exceptions and regulations as Congress shall, from time to time, establish by enactment. This power will be noticed in treat

ing of the judiciary.

ART. IX.-NATURALIZATION.

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization. 29.

§ 1. Naturalization is that legal process by which an alien or a foreigner becomes a citizen of the United States. Congress has exclusive control over this subject. Under the Confederation, this power did not belong to Congress, but to the States. In the Constitutional Convention, there was no opposition to giving it to Congress. Distributed among the several States, under the Confederation, it had been a source of great embarrassment, on account of the different conditions for naturalization required by the different States.

§ 2. An alien is one who is born in a foreign country. This definition does not apply to children born in foreign countries, whose parents are citizens of the United States, and are temporarily absent on the public business of the United States. Such children are considered as native-born.

§ 3. Under the Confederation, New York might require ten years' residence of an alien before he could become naturalized Pennsylvania might require six years, New Jersey three, and Con

necticut one. Yet if a foreigner became naturalized in Connecticut, where but one year's residence was required, he might remove to New York in a year or two after naturalization, and claim all the privileges of citizenship in the latter State. For the free inhabitants of each State were "entitled to all the privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States." Thus a citizen of any State was a citizen of any other State in which he might become a resident.

§ 4. Congress, having the whole control of this subject under the Constitution, passed a law in 1790 requiring two years' residence before a foreigner could become naturalized. In 1795, the act was amended, requiring five years' residence. In 1798, the period was extended to fourteen years: but it was reduced in 1802 to five years; since which there has been no alteration as to time, except with regard to soldiers. A soldier, having served one year in the U. S. army, and having obtained an honorable discharge, may become a citizen of the United States on making oath to these facts. and taking the oath of allegiance to our government.

§ 5. At any time after a foreigner has become a resident in this country, he may make his declaration of intention on oath, before a court of competent jurisdiction, to become a citizen of the United States. The following is a declaration of intention now on file in the clerk's office for the county of Monroe, New York:—

I, Patrick Flannigan, of the city of Rochester, Monroe County, New York, do declare, on oath, that it is my bonâ-fide intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce for ever all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, and sovereignty whatever, and particularly to the sovereign of Great Britain, of whom I am a subject.

Subscribed and sworn to in open court

this thirtieth day of June, 1867..

CHARLES J. POWERS, Clerk.

PATRICK FLANNIGAN,

Seal of

the Court.

§ 6. Five years must have elapsed after a foreigner becomes a resident, and two years after declaration of intention as above, before he can become a citizen. The declaration of intention may be made any time within three years, or longer, after becoming a resident; but at least two years must intervene after declaration of intention before taking the oath of allegiance, which is the last step in order to become a citizen.

§ 7. The oath of allegiance must be preceded by the oath of other witnesses to the five years' residence and good character of the applicant. These witnesses must be citizens of the United States, and swear that they are well acquainted with the said applicant (Patrick Flannigan); that he has resided in the United States for five years last past, and for the last year in the State of New York; and that, during that time, he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States.

§ 8. The oath of allegiance will then be administered to Patrick Flannigan, and will read substantially thus:

"I, Patrick Flannigan, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States; and that I hereby renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, and sovereignty whatever, and particularly to the Queen of England, of whom I am a subject. So help me, God.

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PATRICK FLANNIGAN. "Sworn to in open court this sixth day of July, 1869, before me,

"CHARLES J. POWERS, Cerk of Monroe County."

§ 9. When a foreigner becomes naturalized, his children under twenty-one years of age, if residents of the United States at the time, become citizens without further formality. If a foreigner makes his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, and dies before the time to become naturalized, his wife and children may become citizens at that time on taking the necessary oath.

§ 10. By act of Congress passed in 1855, "persons heretofore born, or hereafter to be born, out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or shall be at the time of their

birth citizens of the United States, shall be deemed and considered, and are hereby declared to be, citizens of the United States; provided, however, that the rights of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers never resided in the United States.

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'Also any woman who might lawfully be naturalized under the existing laws, married, or who shall be married, to a citizen of the United States, shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen.”

ART. X.- -TERRITORY.

1. GOVERNMENT. To make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory belonging to the United States.

76.

2. SEAT OF GOVERNMENT. To exercise exclusive legislation in

all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States. 42.

3. PUBLIC WORKS. Also over all places purchased by consent of the legislatures of the States in which the same shall be, for the erection, 1st, of forts; 2d, magazines; 3d, arsenals; 4th, dock-yards; and, 5th, other needful buildings. 42.

4. ALIENATION. To dispose of the territory belonging to the United States. 76.

5. NEW STATES. May admit new States into the Union. 75.

1.- GOVERNMENT.

§ 1. Ownership of territory by any government implies the right to govern it; and the right to govern implies the right to make all needful rules and regulations for that purpose. But the authors of the Constitution saw fit to incorporate into that instrument this power to govern, which is but in affirmance of well-known principles of law in such cases.

§ 2. It seems to be admitted by all political parties at the present day that the United States possess the right to acquire territory. The government has acted on this right from the beginning. By the liberality of the States owning it, the General Government had quired that immense region known as the North-western Territory

before the adoption of the Constitution. Since the adoption, our territory has been greatly extended in the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, California, and the Russian possessions in America.

§ 3. It is the duty of Congress to make the necessary rules and adopt the necessary measures to govern this vast territory, until such time as, by the increase of its population, it shall be divided and erected into independent States, and admitted into the Union. More than a dozen States have already been formed from this acquired territory, and have been adopted as members of the National Union.

2. SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

§ 4. Speaking of the powers of Congress over the seat of government, Judge Story says, A moment's consideration will establish the importance and necessity of this power. Without it, the National Government would have no adequate means to enforce its authority in the place in which its public functionaries should be convened. They might be insulted and their proceedings might be interrupted with impunity. And, if the State in which it were situated should array itself in hostility to the proceedings of the National Government, the latter might be driven to seek another asylum, or be compelled to a humiliating submission to the State authorities.

§ 5. "Nor let it be thought that the evil is wholly imaginary. It actually occurred to the Continental Congress at the very close of the Revolution, who were compelled to quit Philadelphia, and adjourn to Princeton, in order to escape from the violence of some insolent mutineers of the Continental army.

§ 6. "It is under this clause that the cession of the present District of Columbia was made by the States of Maryland and Virginia to the National Government; and the present seat of the National Government was established at the city of Washington in 1800. That convenient spot was selected by the exalted patriot whose name it bears for this very purpose.

The District of Columbia was a tract ten miles square. That part of it obtained from Virginia was re-ceded to that State in 1846: so that now the District is confined to the Maryland side of the Potomac.