Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/169

 NATURALIZATION 161 they were allowed to engage in trade and com- merce ; and nearly all commercial business was in their hands. To this class, who had made Athens their permanent abode, it was of the greatest importance to be admitted members of a deme, as it released them from a burdensome tax, enabled them to acquire land, to inherit, and generally to enjoy the privileges of citizens, except that of holding the office of archon or priest. So strong was this desire, that they were occasionally induced to get their name surreptitiously entered upon the register of a distant deme ; for a citizen was not obliged to reside in the one in which he was enrolled, and there were at least one hundred of these distinct commonalties distributed over Attica ; but if the fraud was discovered, the alien was liable upon conviction to be sold as a slave. Themistocles exerted himself strongly in favor of this class, and chiefly through his influence their admission into the denies was greatly facilitated, and it afterward became more gen- eral. When the number of the citizens was greatly diminished by war, the loss was sup- plied by the admission of the resident aliens or metoeci. After the disastrous defeat at Syra- cuse, which nearly depopulated the state, the ranks of the citizens were recruited by natural- izing the metoeci. The lexiarchic registers were filled with these names, and the naturali- zation was so extensive as nearly to abolish all distinction. The loss of citizens was again sup- plied in this way after the battle of Chseromjea; and perhaps no state, in proportion to its pop- ulation, ever naturalized so many aliens. It was the fixed policy of the Spartans, and the pecu- liar aim of their institutions, to retain to them- selves and to their descendants the exclusive exercise of political power ; and so rigidly was this policy pursued, that Herodotus declares that but two instances had occurred in which they had admitted foreigners to the full fran- chise. After the time of Herodotus, foreign- ers were occasionally admitted, and it is after this period that helots are supposed to have been raised to this dignity. Upon the revo- lution effected by Cleomenes, and the recon- struction by him of the constitution of the state, he admitted a considerable number of new citizens. They were selected from among the most worthy and deserving of the popu- lation, and embraced natives of Lacedsemon, Perioeci, and strangers, all of whom were ad- mitted to the full franchise. (See SPAETA.) In Rome citizenship, or the Roman burgess right, was originally limited to the patricians. It was at first sparingly bestowed on distinguished foreign clans, after their emigration from their homes or after the conquest of their cities ; but such grants became more rare as the privi- lege increased in value. During the republic citizenship was conferred by a vote of the senate upon aliens who had rendered eminent services to the state, of which several striking examples are mentioned by the Roman histo- is. After the social or Marsic war, 90 B. C., the right was extended to all the people of It- aly. Under the emperors, down to the reign of Caracalla, foreigners petitioning for citi- zenship were naturalized by an imperial de- cree ; but under a constitution promulgated by Caracalla, all the free inhabitants of the various provinces comprising the empire be- came thereafter Roman citizens; and as that empire embraced the civilized world, there could be few or no instances thereafter of per- sonal naturalization. The mode of obtaining naturalization in modern times, and the con- ditions upon which it will be granted, differ in different countries. In the United States the power of conferring it is exclusively vested in the national government. This power has been sometimes exercised by a collective natu- ralization, in cases where foreign territory has been acquired, and in respect to certain Indian tribes, as well as by the fourteenth amendment of the constitution, which made citizens of the f reedmen and other colored persons ; but the mode in which individuals obtain it on their own application is regulated by acts of congress. The policy of this country on the subject, which is characterized by a desire to admit all foreign- ers of good character to a full participation in all the rights enjoyed by our own citizens, after a period of probation sufficiently long to enable them to become acquainted with the nature of our institutions, is to be traced back to an early period of our colonial history. It was not de- rived, like many of our laws, from the enact- ments or the example of Great Britain, but grew out of the necessities attendant upon the settlement of a new country. At the period when the colonies were founded, the policy of England for more than a century had been hostile to conferring political privileges upon foreigners ; and so illiberal was its course in this respect through the whole period of our colonial history, that one of the acts of tyr- anny charged upon George III. in the Decla- ration of Independence was, that he had. en- deavored to prevent the population of the states by obstructing the laws for the nat- uralization of foreigners, and by refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hith- er. The only mode by which a foreigner in England could obtain naturalization, investing him with all the rights of a subject, was by act of parliament. He could obtain letters of den- ization by the king's special license, which was granted with certain restrictions. In the sev- enth year of the reign of Queen Anne an act was passed naturalizing foreign Protestants, by which persons of this class could be admitted to all the rights of subjects upon receiving the sacrament and taking the oaths of abjuration and allegiance ; but it was repealed in the short space of three years. The rights of foreigners settled in the colonies were in a very preca- rious state. By the law of England they could neither hold nor transmit real property, nor ex- ercise any political rights ; and by the naviga- tion act, unless they were naturalized or made