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United States Naturalization Laws in British Courts-Case of Theller.

THURSDAY, January 31.
United States Naturalization Laws in British
Court-Case of Theller.

Mr. CLAY, of Kentucky, presented the petition of Dr. E. A. Theller, who stated that he was a native of Ireland, and had been naturalized, and resides in this country; that he had joined in the expedition for the invasion of Canada, and had been taken prisoner; that he had been tried, and convicted of treason-the judge charging the jury on his trial that his act of naturalization in this country was null, and of non-effect, that no subsequent act could expatriate him from his original allegiance. Under these circumstances, Dr. T. asks that Congress should take some action on the subject, which would define the rights of naturalized citizens.

After some remarks from Mr. CLAY, of Kentucky,

Mr. NORVELL said, that the memorialist was a citizen of Michigan. He was an intelligent man, but an enthusiast in whatever related to human liberty. He had sent to him the counterpart of the memorial just presented. The facts in the memorial were as stated by the Senator from Kentucky. The memorialist was a native of. Ireland, but a naturalized citizen of the United States. In the early part of the past year, he embarked in the struggle for Canadian liberty. He was captured in the Upper Province of Canada, and taken to Toronto. There he was tried, condemned, and sentenced to execution, on a charge of high treason against the Queen of Great Britain. The chief justice of the province, who presided at the trial, instructed the jury, that no subject of the kingdom could ever expatriate himself. Birth, and the residence of one hour in | the British dominions, created a perpetual allegiance. From this allegiance the subject could never be exonerated, under any plea or pretence. The memorialist owed his present safety from the penalties of treason, to his escape from the citadel of Quebec.

[JANUARY, 1839.

every

Mr. Madison, in the last war with Great
Britain, steadily maintained this principle,
resisted the claim of that kingdom to the
perpetual allegiance of her subjects after they
had become our citizens, and repeatedly inti-
mated his determination to retaliate for
injury inflicted upon our naturalized citizens,
captured as prisoners of war, if they were
punished on the ground of their being subjects,
or if they were treated differently from other
prisoners of war. The memorialist was mis-
taken in supposing that the treaty of peace
between this country and Great Britain recog-
nized the right of that kingdom to the perpet-
ual allegiance of her native born subjects.
No such expression is to be found in those
treaties. Our Revolutionary ancestors were
all British subjects at one time. In separating
from the mother country, they ceased to be
her subjects. And how could they, in the
treaty of peace which recognized them as a
separate and independent nation, permit Great
Britain to assert any claim to the perpetual
allegiance of those who were born within the
British realms?

No principle is more clear than that the naturalized citizens of the United States possess all the rights and are entitled to all the protection which could be claimed by native citizens. No duty is more imperative upon the Government than that of affording equal protection to the naturalized as to the native citizen; and he had no recollection of any failure on the part of any Republic or any Administration to perform its duty in this respect.

The circumstances which had produced this memorial were peculiar, and had embarrassed any action which the Government might have been disposed to take on the subject. The memorialist had, in his zeal for the liberty of a foreign province not prepared to assert its own freedom, invaded that foreign province; and had, with a number of our native citizens, waged war upon the British authorities, while his own country was at peace and in amity with them, and had been captured. He and his These were the facts which gave rise to this coadjutors had voluntarily, at least for a time, memorial. Upon these facts, the memorialist expatriated themselves. They had left their appeals to Congress to adopt measures for the own country to engage in a foreign civil war. adjustment of this question of perpetual alle- Now, in this situation, what right had our giance claimed by Great Britain from all her Government to exercise its power for their native born subjects, and for the protection of protection, except by way of friendly inall such subjects as have become, or may terposition? If the memorialist had been become, naturalized citizens of the United taken while fighting the battles of his adopted States. The subject was certainly one of country; if, without committing aggression great importance. The doctrine of perpet- upon the established Government of a foreign ual allegiance, asserted by Great Britain, power, he had, while passing through any part was an absurd relic of feudal barbarism. It of its dominions, been taken on any pretext, was incompatible with the constitution and | and tried for any offence not committed against laws of naturalization of the United States. the peace of that power, and condemned on By those, British subjects may and do become the claim of a perpetual allegiance from him, American citizens. They are entitled, equally then this Government would have been bound with our native citizens, to protection in all to interpose for his protection, and would their lawful pursuits, wherever they may have protected him. As it was, the Exechappen to be. This Government was thus utive acted with regard to him precisely bound to protect them in peace and in war. as it did with regard to native citizens VOL. XIII.-47

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tion on this subject from one of our commercial Northern cities, which attributed the scarcity of silver change to this cause.

captured at the same time with him. It sent | olina. He had lately received a communicaan agent to Toronto for the purpose of prevailing with the provincial authorities to release the prisoners. It made no distinction between the naturalized and the native citizen. What more could it do, without involving the nation in a war? It might have made a formal declaration, that it would never recognize the principle of perpetual allegiance, as asserted in the trial and condemnation of the memorialist. It might, as intimated by the Senator from Kentucky, have remonstrated against that barbarous principle. But if it had done so, the danger was, that he would have been forthwith ordered to execution, for the very purpose of showing a determination practically to maintain the British claim to the perpetual allegiance of their subjects. He had no doubt that this consideration had operated upon the execution in this case. He had alluded to these facts to show that this Government had not been inattentive to its duty on this occasion.

THURSDAY, January 31. Liberation of American Slaves by British thorities while passing from one U. S. port

to another.

Mr. CALHOUN offered the following resolution, which was considered and agreed to:

Mr. STRANGE said that when he offered the resolutions of the Legislature of North Caro lina, he had not the slightest expectation the they would have given rise to any debate; but as the Senator from Kentucky had thought proper to notice them, for the purpose of introducing notions on the subject of the currency, he felt it due to himself and his constituents, from whom these resolutions emanated, w make a brief reply. He wholly dissented from the position laid down by the Senator from Kentucky, with regard to the causes which pro duced the scarcity of silver change. It wS not exportation which produced this scarcity, but it arose from the hoarding of silver by the banks, who issued, in lieu of it, their smal notes. In fact, he did not believe that silver coins of the lower denominations were ever exported.

Mr. CLAY, of Kentucky, hoped he might be permitted, without offence, to make a few ob servations on the subject presented by these Au-resolutions, particularly as it was one of inportance, to which his attention had been recently directed. He happened to receive, b a few days ago, a communication from an intergent gentleman, in one of our principal seaports, affirming that the scarcity of silver Resolved, That the President of the United States change was one of the effects of the passa be requested to communicate to the Senate whether of the gold bill; because, by reducing the the Government of Great Britain has made compen- standard of the gold coin, it became less var sation in the cases of the brigs Enterprise, Enco-able as an article of exportation than silve, mium, and Comet, the first of which was forced by stress of weather into Port Hamilton, Bermuda Island, and the other two wrecked on the keys of the Bahamas, and the slaves on board forcibly seized and detained by the local authorities; and if no compensation has been made, the reasons why it has not been made, with a copy of the correspondence between the two Governments, which has taken place since the answer to a former call on the same subject by the Senate.

Small Silver Coinage for Change. Mr. STRANGE presented certain resolutions adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, representing the scarcity of specie change in that State, and asking for the passage of a law authorizing the branch mints to coin silver change. The resolutions having been read

and, therefore, the latter was always exported. Now this was exactly what was predicted by himself and others, at the time of the passage of the law, for the adjustment of the vale of the two coins; and the result has proved the correctness of the prediction. Gold could not be exported under that law, without disadvan tage, unless exchange was greatly against us; but silver can profitably be exported, and when exportation becomes necessary, it is of course made in that species of coin in which it can be sent abroad without loss. This was exactly in accordance with the information which he had just received from an intelligent source, in one of our large commercial cities.

Mr. NILES thought that the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. CLAY) was mistaken in the Mr. CLAY, of Kentucky, wished to make a causes to which he had attributed the scarcity single observation on the subject, before it was of silver change, and that he was mistaken in passed. This complaint of the want of silver the fact that a scarcity of change existed in change was not confined to North Carolina, the country at large. He thought there was but existed in other places, and was produced no such scarcity; he knew, in many places, it by that disproportionate value between gold was abundant. Within his own experience, and silver coin which originated in the cele-banks had refused to receive it. This was a brated gold bill. The effect of this bill convincing proof that there was abundance was this that when it became necessary to export specie, silver was exported in preference to gold, because the silver was more valuable in foreign countries; and hence, he apprehended, was the scarcity in North Car

of it. It is known to every one who has inquired into this subject, that silver change is never exported, because its nominal value in a foreign market would be lost, and it could only be disposed of as bullion to be recoined, occa

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There may | tor took the unusual course of appearing as the advocate of one of the political parties of that State, and, in a lengthened address, assigning his views as to the complexion of the document, and the course of the North Carolina Senators on this floor. And what followed? Why, a garbled statement of the debate was immediately sent out, in one of the papers of this city, in advance of the true statement, containing the answers of his colleague and himself; and no doubt the intended effect was produced before the contradiction could overtake the misrepresentation, which was published in every Whig paper in the State. What was the case now? These being North Carolina resolutions, the Senator from Kentucky, who seems to take such an interest in that State, rises in his place, and assumes a position in relation to them, which, if uncontradicted, will have an unfavorable effect on the public mind. We must, said Mr. S., be more fortunate now than usual, if the contradiction accompanies the assertion.

sioning much loss by the process. be a scarcity of change in some States, but that is the result of their paper systems. The hostility of paper to silver is well known; indeed, so hostile is it, that where it has the power, even silver fipennybits are driven out of circulation. What was the result in Philadelphia, where the mint was located, during the late suspension? In that city, which, previous to the suspension, was thoroughly saturated with silver change, after the barrier was broken down and the emission of shinplasters authorized, no change whatever could be procured. In a single night, the state of things was completely changed. Instead of an abundance of silver change, there was an entire absence of it. And a similar result will always follow a similar cause; and to the extension of our paper system, the circulation of one dollar notes, and notes for a fractional part of a dollar, may we much more appropriately look for the scarcity of silver change, than the operations of the gold bill of 1836.

Mr. STRANGE said, that, upon reflection, he was entirely satisfied that the Senator from Kentucky was grossly mistaken in the positions laid down by him. Every man knew that there had been a great increase of specie in the country, since the passage of the gold bill. Now this increase could not be altogether in gold, but must be partly in silver and partly in gold. He was also satisfied that there could not be the difference in value, between the gold and silver coinage, which the Senator from Kentucky supposed; for he believed that their relative value was as nicely adjusted as it was possible for human ingenuity to do it; indeed, this was shown to be the case by the prices current in foreign countries.

The Senator from Kentucky had attributed the disappearance of silver specie to exportation, and he attributed it to the hoarding of it by the banks, and partly by individuals. Change was a thing that was never exported. The country must be reduced to the lowest ebb, before it would suffer the inconvenience and loss of sending it abroad; because it must go as mere bullion, to be recoined, in the countries to which it is sent. Every man of reason and reflection, could see at once the true cause for this scarcity; and upon the soundest principles of philosophy, when one good cause presents itself it was idle to search for another. He would not have troubled the Senate with these remarks, but for the immediate connection the subject had with his constituents and himself, and but for the false position laid down by the Senator from Kentucky.

That Senator seemed to have taken North Carolina under his especial charge, and to have felt himself called upon to take part in the public struggles within her. When he and his colleague, some time ago, introduced certain resolutions coming from their State, the Sena

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Mr. CLAY, of Kentucky, said he was unwilling to prolong this discussion, but he would assure the Senator from North Carolina that he had not the least inclination to interfere between him and his constituents. When the resolutions from the Legislature of North Carolina instructing her Senators were presented, he had offered some remarks because they had adverted to matters of general interest, and if an incorrect report of them had gone forth to the world, no one would regret it more than he did. He would have been pleased had the discussion been published just as it occurred in the Senate, but he had no agency or control of the subject. So much for that matter. This morning the Senator presents resolutions on the subject of silver change, and I, having within a few days received communications from different sections of the country on the same subject, think proper to make a few remarks; was this interfering between the Senator and his constituents? He thought not. But the Senator seems to think that I am mistaken in the cause to which I attribute the scarcity of silver change, viz: the unequal valuation of the gold bill. But did not facts bear out the assertion? Look at the importation of specie since the passage of the gold bill. Is it not almost exclusively in gold? and why? Because of the appreciation of that metal and the depreciation of silver by that bill. This affords a greater profit on the importation of gold, and hence there is not a proportionate supply of silver-the metal which furnishes change. So, too, when exchange with foreign nations is against us, and it becomes profitable to export specie, it is found more advantageous to send silver than gold; and hence a cause of the scarcity of change in Philadelphia, New York, and other cities, which are more immediately subject to be drained of their specie by their contiguity to our commerce. He did not consider him

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self infallible on this subject, but in express- | circulation of the country, in place of those filthy ing his views or theories on the matter, he shinplasters which now usurped their place. did not think he was doing any thing improper That was the object of these resolutions, and it as an American citizen or a member of the was out of place to go into any foreign causes Senate. for the scarcity complained of.

Mr. STRANGE was very unwilling to prolong Mr. BENTON applauded the sound and practithis debate, but he had been drawn into it very cal views presented by the Senator from Gearunexpectedly and unwillingly. He had assum-gia, (Mr. LUMPKIN,) and considered what he

ed a position, which he felt bound to maintain the truth and reason of. He said that the Senator from Kentucky was guilty of a petitio principii-that he had assumed a principle not founded on fact. This the Senator had denied, but in the course of his remarks, he had shown a better reason for the disappearance of silver change than he had given in the beginning; and if he was right, there was no reason for its exportation, but a very good reason for its importation.

The Senator could not escape from his position, for whatever relative difference there was between gold and silver, paper was still cheaper than either. He admitted that the number of one dollar notes was greatly reduced. But small bills, even as low as three dollars, were still in circulation, to a great extent, and these, as long as they were permitted to circulate, had the tendency to exclude change from circulation, and cause it to be hoarded. The Senator said that the banks had no interest in hoarding specie. But this argument could not stand, for it was their interest to hold on to all the specie they could get, so as to circulate their own notes, and this was the true cause for the disappearance of change. It was, therefore, perfectly idle to search for any other cause, or to talk about the exportation of the smaller coin which never was resorted to. When the gold bill was passed it was not to elevate gold, but to bring it to its true value, when compared with silver. It was contended that the gold coin was above par, and was, consequently, so valuable for exportation, that it could not remain in the country. The bill was, therefore, passed to remedy that evil, and he had no doubt but it had effected that object.

said to be entirely conclusive on the point to which he directed his observations. He d not rise to add any thing to those remarks, but to call the attention of the Senate to a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which had just been printed, and laid on our tables, and which might not yet have been observed by members. It was a report which contained the precise information which this conversstional debate required, and which would show how great was the error of supposing that gold coin had been overvalued in the United States, by the act of 1834, and how far that act was from preventing an importation of silver or causing it to be exported, or banishing silver change.

It would be recollected, Mr. B. said, that the friends of hard money had passed two bills in 1834-a silver bill, as well as a gold bill. The object of the latter was to correct the error of our gold standard; the object of the forma was to repeal the law passed by the United States Bank party in 1819 to illegalize the cr culation of all silver except Spanish milled do lars, of which, in consequence of the cessation of the Spanish dominion over Mexico and South America, there were no longer any coined. It was, therefore, an act to illegalize the circulation of the only silver which came to us.

At the time of the passage of these bills, continued Mr. B., the most lugubrious vaticinstions were indulged in by the paper-money party. They were incessant and vehement it their declarations that the hard-money curren cy was ruined; that gold was debased; that it would supersede silver, prevent its importa tion, cause its exportation, and drive it out of the country; and that we should have no hardmoney currency but a debased gold coinage. Mr. LUMPKIN said he did not intend to enter These were the declarations incontinently reinto a discussion of the relative value of gold peated at that time; and now, after upwards and silver coins, but to express the opinion that of four years' experience, how stands the fact! the object of the Legislature of North Carolina, Sir, the fact stands thus: that so far from preand the object of the people of the Southern venting the importation of silver, the actual Atlantic and South-western States, was to ob-importation of that coin has exceeded thirtytain a supply of silver change in place of the odious shinplasters which now infested the interior. With proper legislation it was obvious that that object could be effected greatly to the interest of the people, without any expense to the Government. It was known to all acquainted with mining operations, that where gold was found, there was a proportion of silver found with it. Now, under the existing laws, the branch mints were not allowed to coin silver change, though they had had a sufficiency of silver for that purpose, which, if coined, would not be exported, but go into the

five millions of dollars since the passage of the gold bill; being the largest importation of that coin which has ever taken place since the establishment of the Federal Government. So much for importation; now for the exportation; and here it is seen that the export, instead of being confined to silver, was, at the only time that a commercial exportation took place, which was in the spring of 1837, when the banks sus pended, far larger of gold, in proportion to the quantity of the two metals which were in the country, than it was of silver. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows that the

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debased-if it was reduced below its relative value to silver-it would be always paid out in preference to silver; but it is not so paid out. On the contrary, it is hugged and hoarded by the banks; they will give silver for their notes, but they make apologies when you want gold.

[JANUARY, 1839. export of gold was, during that year, $1,828,- This is another proof, continued Mr. B., that 000, while the export of silver was only $2,756,-gold is not debased by our new law. If it was 000. Now, the quantity of silver in the country at that time was at least four times greater than that of gold; and, therefore, the export of silver should have been eight or nine millions to have been in proportion to the gold, while it was not, in fact, so much as one million more. Thus it is proved that our gold bill has neither prevented the importation of silver, nor caused its exportation. There is upwards of seventy millions of silver now in the country, besides the gold; and the only cause of its disappearance from circulation is in the deluge of small notes with which the papermoney party floods the land.

So much for silver: with respect to gold, the same report shows that we have imported about twenty-six millions, either in gold coin or bullion, since the passage of the gold bill; that there has been coined of the former gold of the United States about a million and a quarter; and of native bullion about two millions and a half; making an acquisition of that metal, in about four years, of thirty millions of dollars, without counting what came in by emigrants, and escaped registry at the custom-houses. The whole acquisition of gold and silver since 1832, when the United States Bank charter was vetoed, and when our-hard-money policy first commenced, is at least eighty millions; which, added to twenty millions which was in the country at that time, makes at least one hundred millions now in the country.

Besides the view of our acquisition of gold and silver since the two hard-money bills of 1834, the same report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows us the state of the circulation of the Bank of the United States during the whole period of its existence; and this statement shows us that the quantity of gold now in the United States is near three times the average circulation of that Bank, and near one-third more than it ever was at its most expanded period. The average circulation of that Bank was only eleven millions of dollars; its highest annual circulation was only twenty-two millions, while our gold coin is now actually about thirty millions. This being the case, we ought to have a plentiful gold currency; we ought to have three times as much gold in circulation as we formerly had of United States Bank notes. But this is not the case; and why? Because the banks hoard the gold, and will not pay it out in redemption of their notes, and because the Government of the United States encourages and fosters that practice of the banks by dispensing with the use of gold, and using the notes of the banks in the collection and disbursement of its revenue. As long as this is the case-so long as the Federal Government uses bank paper-gold will remain locked up in the banks; and there will be no way to get it out of them but to make them overflow-to gorge themto bring so much gold into the country that the banks cannot hoard the whole of it.

There is still another proof on this head; it is to be found in every price current. Look to the relative value of American gold and silver in any one of these papers, and you will always find it to be about equal. Spanish milled dollars-those with a Spanish king's head, especially the pillar dollars, the column of Hercules dollars they bear a premium, because they are wanted for exportation to the East, where their currency, for three centuries and a half, has made them the most acceptable foreign coin which can be carried to the Asiatic or African countries; but American gold coin and silver are even in the market.

No, sir. Gold does not expel silver, but small bank notes and shinplasters do expel it. A political party, and the banks in their interest, do all they can to banish both gold and silver; and it is the bounden duty of the Federal Government to cease to be accessory to another explosion of the banks by continuing to dispense with the use of coin, and continuing to use paper money. Another explosion is coming. It will come as certainly as the revolution of the seasons; and the Federal Government should foresee the event, and provide against it by going back to the act of 1789, and acting upon that act, and receiving nothing but gold and silver in payment of its revenues. This would check bank expansions, and protect the country as well as the Federal Treasury.

At 10 premium on foreign exchange, exportation of specie begins. The cotton dealing Bank of the United States, can put it up to that point any day that it pleases. It put it up in May of 1837; the exportation of specie immediately began; and over every parcel exported the paper-money party shouted, exulted, and triumphed, as if a great victory had been achieved. And so it will be again. The premium on foreign exchanges is now upwards of 9 per centum; it can be made 10 at any moment; then for exporting specie, triumphing again, more panics, shutting up banks; and charging the whole upon the Democratic Administration.

To return to the North Carolina resolution; it is a wise, just, and necessary measure which it requires. The branch mints should coin silver change; they will be able to supply it to districts of interior country, which cannot obtain supplies from New Orleans or Philadelphia. This Administration, and that of Gen. Jackson, have begun to furnish a national supply of silver change. They have done much; but it is only the commencement of what ought to be done. The country does not yet feel the supply. Nine-tenths of the Union has no silver

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