THE NATURALIZATION LAW.

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tion of postage on newspapers, a revisal of the revenue laws generally, a reduction of the expenses of the army and navy, and diplomatic agencies, the abolition of useless offices, a circumscription of the discretionary powers of public officers over money, a more perfect system of official accountability, a suitable superintendency of the navy yards, a proper fortification of the accessible harbors, and the appropriation of the funds thus to be saved to the liquidation of the public debt.

The repeal of the "alien and sedition laws," on the ground of their anti-republican character, having been suggested at the outset of his administration, they were not adverted to here, but in respect to the naturalization law, enacted by the Federalists, he said: "I cannot omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years, is a denial to a great proportion of those who ask it; and controls a policy pursued from their first settlement by many of these states, and still believed of consequence to their prosperity. And shall we refuse the un happy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? The constitution, indeed, has wisely provi ded, that for admission to certain offices of important trust, a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the general char acter and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to every one manifesting a bona fide purpose of embark ing his life and fortunes permanently with us? with re strictions perhaps to guard against the fraudulent use of our flag; an abuse which brings so much embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen, and so much danger to

the nation, of being involved in war, that no endeavo should be spared to detect and suppress it."

These suggestions, although still regarded by many with distrust-as a dangerous experiment-went to congress and the country with the sanction of a name which had become the shibboleth of Republicanism, and induced such legislation as was believed to be necessary. They gave a new motion to the machinery of government, and a new impulse to all public affairs. They lifted up the substantial interests of the masses into increased importance; commanded the requisite protection to agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, considerable extension of the right of trial by jury, and reduced the probationary residence of foreigners in the country, as a condition precedent to naturalization, to the term of five years. And they cut at a blow the bonds which the Federalists had, by their policy, imposed on all industrial interests, and which held the country to the condition of infancy, discharged its pupilage, and permitted it to rise to the august stature of a great and glorious nation.

But it not only devolved upon the administration of Jefferson to unfold and elucidate, more perfectly than it had been done before, the Republican theory concerning personal rights, but also to indicate how the government, which the Federalists had so strenuously contended was bereft of all of the attributes of sovereignty, was really able, in respect to any exterior subject or matter relating to foreign nations, to wield the forces of the most absolute monarchy without violating the constitution. This was a point which had not been fully comprehended, not even by General Hamilton. It required a practical demonstration. The public necessity of dislodging the French from their position at the mouth of the Mississippi river afforded the opportunity.

PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.

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On the 30th of April, 1803, Robert R. Livingston, as minister plenipotentiary, and James Monroe as envoy extraordinary of the United States, and the minister of the public treasury of the French republic, concluded a treaty for the cession of Louisiana to the United States, in which it was stipulated that the inhabitants of the ceded territory should be incorporated in the union of the United States, and be admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens; and that in the meantime they should be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion. On the 17th of October next ensuing, Mr. Jefferson submitted the treaty to the senate for their approval, where, as well as in the house of representatives, upon the passage of an act to authorize him to take possession of the ceded territory, it elicited much earnest debate. The power of the government to annex to its domains any territory lying outside the boundaries laid down in the treaty of Paris, was peremptorily challenged. Every paragraph of the constitution was carefully scanned, considered, and expounded in the course of their examination. At length Senator Taylor of Virginia revealed the secret. It was an attribute of sovereignty, which belonged to every independent state.

"Before the confederation," said the senator, "each state in the Union was independent, and possessed the right attached to an independent sovereignty, to acquire territory, by war, purchase, or treaty. This right now must be either still possessed; or forbidden both to each state and the general government; or transferred to the general government. It is not possessed by the states separately, because war and compacts with foreign powers, and with each other, are prohibited to a separate

state; and no other means of acquiring territory exist. By depriving every state of the means of exercising the right of acquiring territory, the constitution has deprived each separate state of the right itself. Neither the means nor the right of acquiring territory are forbidden to the United States; on the contrary, in the fourth article of the constitution congress is empowered to dispose of and regulate the territory belonging to the United States. This establishes the right of the United States to hold territory.

"The means of acquiring territory consist of war and compact. Both of these are expressly surrendered to congress, and forbidden to the several states; and no right in a separate state to hold territory without its limits is recognized by the constitution, nor any mode of effecting it possible, consistent with it. The means of acquiring and the right of holding territory having been given up to the United States, and prohibited to each state, it follows that these attributes of sovereignty once held by each state, are thus lodged in the United States; and that, if the means of acquiring and the right of holding are equivalent to the right of acquiring territory, then this right merged in the United States, and forms a part of the war-levying and treaty-making power, or, indeed, is literally given to the general government by the constitution."*

This hitherto unexplained application to the general government of the United States, of the attributes of

* Senator Taylor was the intimate friend of President Jefferson, of James Madison, who was then secretary of state, and of Chancellor Livingston and James Monroe, the negotiators of this treaty, and was understood to speak on this occasion by their authority. Hence his exposition of the treaty, rather than several others which were given, was taken to be the position of the administration on the subject.

EFFECT OF THE TREATY.

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Sovereignty which belong to every independent state, and its reconciliation to, and harmonization with, the war-declaring, peace-concluding, and treaty-making pow ers contained in the constitution, was triumphant. It solved, at once and forever, the problem which the Federalists had been unable to comprehend, and relieved the public mind from the apprehensions which they had excited. It vindicated the protective and defensive capacities of our system, and commended them to the decent respect of other nations around. It did even more. In demonstrating the residence in the government of the power to annex foreign territory, it explained as well the processes for, and the nature of, the union in such cases effected that the acceptance by the government of ceded foreign territory, merely subjoined the cession to the territory previously possessed, and which, with its inhabitants, thus left in quarantine, were to be received into the union of states, by the same processes only to which the original territories and their inhabitants were and are subjected.

But the settlement of the question brought another one in its train, of less constitutional gravity, but of equal perplexity to the Federalists, viz: Whether a people so heterogeneous and diversified in their lineage, manners, dialect, and complexion, and so generally Catholical as were the Louisianians, were to be taken into the American family upon the footing of equality, and admitted to all the rights and privileges of native citizens. Napoleon had taken the precaution to secure for them, in the treaty of cession, a guaranty of that import; the senate had confirmed the guaranty, and thereby obligated the United States to fulfill it; and an act for the organization of the territory, and the division thereof into two separate communities, was submitted for the consideration of congress.