Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/170

 162 NATURALIZATION free denizens by the king's letters patent, they were forbidden to exercise in any of the colo- nies the occupation of a merchant or a factor. To remedy this state of things and to encourage immigration, the colonial legislatures exercised the right of passing naturalization laws. Mary- land was the first colony that took this course. In 1666 she enacted a law for the naturaliza- tion of the Dutch from Cape Henlopen and the French Protestant refugees who had set- tled in the colony, and continned to pass laws for the naturalization of aliens to the time of the revolution. In 1 671, in the reign of Charles II., the colony of Virginia passed an act for the naturalization of any one desiring to make that commonwealth his constant residence, who might apply by petition to the general assembly. Five acts were afterward passed, naturalizing a number of aliens who had petitioned for the privilege ; and in 1680 the governor was author- ized to grant letters of naturalization to any foreigner settled in the colony upon his taking the oath of allegiance. In 1705 a law was passed adding the test oath to the oath of allegiance to secure the Protestant succession, and in 1738 another act naturalizing any alien who might settle upon the Roanoke. In South Carolina, in 1693, the French Protestants who had set- tled in the province were made citizens by the colonial legislature ; and in 1731 Massachusetts passed an act for the admission of foreign Protestants after a residence of one year. The colony of New York passed an act in 1683, declaring that all actual inhabitants of the province professing Christianity, of whatever foreign nation, should be entitled to all the privileges of natural-born subjects upon ta- king the oath of allegiance. Delaware in 1700 passed an act empowering the governor to de- clare any alien, previously settled, or thereaf- ter coming to settle in the province, natural- ized, upon taking an oath to be true and faith- ful to the king and to the government of the province, and declaring that all Swedes, Dutch, and other foreigners settled in the colony be- fore its acquisition by the English were to be deemed fully and completely naturalized. Penn- sylvania also passed a naturalization law in the same year, and South Carolina a general act in 1696. These laws were not favorably re- garded in England. They were looked upon as encroachments upon the royal prerogative" or the rights of parliament ; and even in the col- onies, the more strenuous loyalists denounced them as disregarding the navigation acts, and as tending to an undue increase of the inhabi- tants, thereby creating formidable antagonists to English industry, and nursing a disposition to rebellion. In 1715 the colony of New York passed an act for the naturalization of all for- eign Protestants then inhabiting the province. The act was referred by the board of trade to Northey, the English attorney general, who condemned this mode of naturalizing "in the lump," but recognized the right of the colonial legislature to naturalize particular aliens by name, after inquiring into each case specially; and thereafter down to 1773 some 14 acts were passed*, by which an immense number of aliens were naturalized by name. In 1740 an act was passed by the British parliament for the naturalization of foreign Protestants set- tled in the colonies of America. It required a residence there of seven years, without hav- ing been absent at any time for more than two months ; all naturalized under it, except Qua- kers or Jews, had first to receive the sacra- ment of the Lord's supper in some Protestant communion ; and by an act passed in 1747, the benefit of the previous act was extended to the Moravian Brethren, and other foreign Protes- tants settled in America, who had conscientious scruples against taking an oath. This was un- doubtedly designed to supersede colonial legis- lation, but it did not have that effect. The long period of residence required was very ob- jectionable in a new country, and the Catholics, who had settled extensively in Maryland, were excluded from its provisions. The colonial legislatures still continued to pass naturaliza- tion laws, and the difficulties growing out of the subject continued to increase until the sep- aration of the two countries. During the rev- olution, and until the adoption of the federal constitution, the power of naturalizing aliens was exercised by the states. The constitution of the state of New York, adopted in 1777, s declared that it should be in the discretion of the legislature to naturalize all such persons, and in such manner, as they should think' prop- er. The legislature enacted no general law, but continued to pass acts for the naturalization of persons by name down to the year 1790. After the breaking out of the revolution, and especially after the independence of the United States was recognized by Great Britain, it be- came necessary both here and in England to determine who of those born in the colonies were to be deemed aliens. It was decided in the English courts that all persons of this class, adhering to the American government during the war and until after the treaty of 1783, ceased thereafter to be subjects of Great Brit- ain, and were aliens ; but in the American tri- bunals it was held that the colonies acquired all the rights and powers of sovereign states when they declared their independence on July 4, 1776, and that the people of the respective states ceased upon that day to be subjects of Great Britain, and became members of the new nation then formed ; that none were ex- cepted unless, within a reasonable time after that event, they had placed themselves under the protection and power of the government of Great Britain in such a way as to indicate an election on their part to remain in alle- giance to that country. It was conceded by the tribunals of both countries that all persons born in the colonies had a right, upon the hap- pening of such an event as the revolution, to elect to which government they would adhere ; the point upon which they differed being that