Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/26

 14 FEDEBAIi BEPOBXEB. �cover no intention wbatever in this act of parliament to do more or less than to make ber a British subject." �Tbe only decisions wbich bave been found under the American act are Burton v. Burton, 1 Keys, 359, and Kelly v. Owen, 7 Wall. 496. In the first case it was beld, in the language of the syllabus, that "tbe alien widow of a natural- ized citizen of the United States, althougb she never resided in the United States during the life-time of ber busband, is entitled to dower in bis real estate," and tbis, not upon the ground that a state law gave an alien woman, situate as the plaintiff was, dower in the lands of ber busband, but because, under and by force of the act of 1855, supra, sbe became, upon the naturalization of her busband, an American citizen, and was entitled as such citizen to dower in ber busband's lands after bis deatb, although sbe was married in 1823, and ber busband was not naturalized until 1840, and sbe was never in the United States until after bis deatb. �In the second case, it is only expressly decided that an alien woman who marries an alien, who subsequently becomes an American citizen, is witbin the purview of the act, as well as if ber busband bad been a natural-born citizen, or natural- ized before the marriage, and tberefore sbe is an American citizen from and after the naturalization of her busband. �In delivering the opinion of the court Mr. Justice Field says: "Tbe terms 'married,' or 'who shall be married,' do not refer, in our judgment, to the time when the marriage is celebrated, but to a state of marriage. They mean tbat, wbenever a woman, who under previous acts migbt be natural- ized, is in a state of marriage to. a citizen, wbetber bis citizen- sbip existed at the passage of the act or subsequently, or before or after the marriage, sbe becomes by that faot a citizen also. Hia citizensbip, wbenever it exists, confers, under the act, citizensbip upon her. » * • Its object, in our opinion, was to allow ber citizensbip to follow that of ber busband, vfitbout the necessity of any application for naturalization on ber part." �In 2 Bish. Law M. W. § 505, it is said of tbis statute "tbat, hy the very act of marriage, . citizensbip is conferred on a ����