Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/876

CITIZEN. 772 CITIZEN. belonged the right of participating botli in the deliberative or legislative and the judicial func- tions of the political comniuiiily of which he was a member. The right was jealously guarded, and was rarely conferred on those of foreign birth. In Rome there were two classes of citizens — one that had a share in the sovereign power, i.e. were capable of attaining to the highest offices of State; the other possessing only the l)rivate riglits of citizenship. These, however, included the privilege of voting in the public as- sembly. There, as in the American Ke]>ul)lic and in some other modern States, citizenship, though usually acquired by birth, might be attained by naturalization, or sjiecial grant of the State. In the later period of the Empire. Roman citizen- ship, so highly valued under the Republic and early Empire, largely lost its distinctive charac- ter, in consequence of the gradvial disappearance of the political and legal privileges which for- merly attended it. In the lliird ccntur' of our era, the constitution, or decree, of Caracalla ex- tended it to all persons, except slaves, freedmen, and their children, under the sway of the Empire, and Justinian completed the work by extending it to all free persons. In the United States, as has been said before, the word "citizen' is used in its broadest sense, as defined at the beginning of this article. Perhaps as simple a statement as any is that made by an Attorney-General of the United States, when he said: "The phrase, 'a citizen of the United States.' without addition or qualification, means neither more nor less than a memlier of the na- tion." The same person may be. and usually is, a citizen of the United States and of the State in which he resides. The two things are not, how- ever, necessarily coexistent; for an inhabitant of one of the Territories or of the District of Co- lumbia is a citizen of the United States without being a citizen of a single State, and there are conceivable legal conditions which might make a man a citizen of a certain State without being a citizen of the United States. The idea of citi- zenshij) docs not necessarily involve the right of voting or of other participation in political activ- ity, as in the Greek conception of the term, for women and minors may be citizens, although ex- cluded from all direct political activity. The question of race does not now enter into the defi- nition of citizenship; previous to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amcndnient, this could not be stated, as the ])ossession of negro blood was be- fore that distinctly a disqualification from citi- zenship; yet even before the passage of the Four- teenth Amendment this position was doubted. The decisions denying the citizenship of Indians were founded not on race distincticm, but on the existence of tribal relations, which were incon- sistent with full allegiance to the United States. A citizen of the Ignited States may be either native-born or naturalized. Among native-born citizens are included all persons born in the United States and not suljject to any foreign power, including even the children of alien parents, unless the latter be ambassadors of a foreign power, but excluding untaxed Indians still in tribal relations; children born iti foreign countries of fathers who were citizens of the United States at the time of birth ; freedmen not recognized as citizens before the .Act of Emancipa- tion, but so recognized by that act and by the ensuing Fourteenth .Xmenduicnt : Imlians born in the country who have abandoned tribal relations, have entered into civilized life, and have by pay- ing ta.xes recognized tlicir allegiance; and Indians who have accepted allotments of land in .severalty under the Dawes Act of 1887. We have already said that minors and women are citizens in the meaning of the term found in the United States Constitution; it is also true that wives of citizens who were neither born in the coimtry nor naturalized become citizens by their marriage, if they were not legally incapable of naturalization. A naturalized citizen is one who was originally a subject of a foreign State, but who has been received by the United States as a citizen under the acts of Congress bearing on that subject. Theoretically, treatises on interna- tional law have always doubted the i)ower of the subject to throw off his natural allegiance, and ot a State to accept the allegiance of the subject of a foreign country. But these rights have been exercised, in point of fact, very generally: and the right of naturalization is now recognized by treaties between the United States and many foreign powers. A person who is naturalized is admitted to all the privileges and duties of citi- zenship; and his naturalization includes that of any minor children resident at the time in the United States. In regard to thedtial citizenship to the general Government and to the State in which a person resides, it may be .said that a citizen of the United States owes his first and highest alle- giance to the general Government. The relations of the two forms of allegiance have bei-n defined as follows by the United States Supreme Court: "There is in our political system a government of each of the several Slates, and a government of the United States. Each is distinct from the others, and has citizens of its own, who owe it allegiance, and whose rights, within its juris- diction, it must protect. The same person may be at the same time a citizen of the United States and a citizen of a State ; but his rights of citizen- ship under one of these governments will be differ- ent from those he has under the other. The Gov- ernment of the United States, although it is, within the scope of its powers, supreme and be- yond the States, can neither grant nor secure to its citizens rights or privileges which are not e.- jiressly or by imj)licalion placed tnidcr its juris- diction. All that caimot be so granted or secured are left to the exclusive protection of the States. A citizen of the United States owes his first and h)ghest allegiance to the general Government, and not to the State of which he may be a citizen. A declaration of var, or the conmienccnu-nt of actual hostilities, between two States, i'/j.so facto, dissolves the ])artnership relation existing be- tween citizens of the hostile t+tatcs." The word 'citizen' is often loosely used as synonymous with resident or inhabitant. here a law passed for !i )>articular purpose makes such loo.se use of the word, and where no question of constitutional rights is involved, the courts will interpret the word according to the intention of the lawmakers. See Alien; .vZlegiance; Xati'rauzation ; Sub- ject; and the autliorities referred to imdcr those titles. CITIZEN, TitE. A comedy by Arthur JIuipliy, performed July 2, 1761, at the Driiry Uane Theatre, London, and printed (as a farce) in 1703. It is founded in part on Dcstouches's I'ausse AgiUs.