for three years next preceding, it has been the bona fide intention of such alien. to become a citizen of the United States, and shall, in all other respects, comply with the laws in regard to naturalization.

SEC. 2. No certificates of citizenship, or naturalization, heretofore obtained from any court of record within the United States, shall be deemed invalid, in consequence of an omission to comply with the requisition of the first section of the act, entitled, "An act relative to evidence in cases of naturalization," passed the twenty-second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen.

SEC. 3. The declaration required by the first condition specified in the first section of the act, to which this is an addition, shall, if the same has been bonɑ fide made before the clerks of either of the courts in the said condition named, be as valid as if it had been made before the said courts, respectively.

SEC. 4. A declaration by any alien, being a free white person, of his intended application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, made in the manner and form prescribed in the first condition specified in the first section of the act to which this is in addition, two years before his admission, shall be a sufficient compliance with the said condition anything in the said act, or in any subsequent act, to the contrary notwithstanding.

:

An Act to amend the acts concerning naturalization. Approved May 24, 1828. SEC. 1. The second section of the act entitled "An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and to repeal the acts heretofore passed on that subject," which was passed on the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and two, and the first section of the act entitled "An act relative to evidence in cases of naturalization," passed on the twenty-second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, be, and the same are hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. Any alien, being a free white person, who was residing within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States between the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and two, and the eighteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and who has continued to reside within the same, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States without having made any previous declaration of his intention to become a citizen: Provided, That whenever any person without a certificate of such declaration of intention shall make application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, it shall be proved, to the satisfaction of the court, that the applicant was residing within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States before the eighteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and has continued to reside within the same, or he shall not be so admitted; and the residence of the applicant within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for at least five years immediately preceding the time of such application, shall be proved by the oath or affirmation of citizens of the United States, which citizens shall be named in the record as witnesses; and such continued residence within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States, when satisfactorily proved, and the place or places where the applicant has resided for at least five years, as aforesaid, shall be stated and set forth, together with the names of such citizens, in the record of the court admitting the applicant: otherwise the same shall not entitle him to be considered and deemed a citizen of the

United States.)

An Act to amend the act entitled "An act for the regulation of seamen on board the public and private vessels of the United States," passed the third of March, eighteen hundred and thirteen. Approved June 26, 1848.

The last clause of the twelfth section of the act hereby amended, consisting of the following words, to wit, "without being at any time during the said five years out of the territory of the United States," be, and the same is hereby repealed.

An Act to define the pay and emoluments of certain officers of the army, and for other purposes. Approved July 17, 1862.

SEC. 21. Any alien of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who has enlisted or shall enlist in the armies of the United States, either the regular or volunteer forces, and has been or shall be hereafter honorably discharged, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, upon his petition, without any previous declaration of his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and he shall not be required to prove more than one year's residence within the United States previous to his application to become such citizen; and the court admitting such alien shall, in addition to such proof of residence and good moral character as is now provided by law, be satisfied by competent proof of such person having been honorably discharged from the service of the United States as aforesaid.

See FEES AND COSTS, 36.

NOTE.

The admission of an alien to become a citizen is a judicial act, and cannot be performed by the clerk alone or any other officer. The court must be satisfied by the proof produced, that the person applying is entitled; and unless satisfied, among other things, that he has behaved himself as a man of good moral character, may reject his application.

INDEX.