LIMITING RIGHT TO VOTE TO CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

(SUBCOMMITTEE NO. I-CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LAW)

Subcommittee No. 1 of the Committee on the Judiciary, with Hon. Warren Gard presiding, next took up for consideration the following joint resolution:

[H. J. Res. 270, Sixty-fifth Congress, second session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following amendment to the Constitution be, and hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid as a part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of the several States as provided by the Constitution:

"SECTION 1. No person not a citizen of the United States shall have the right to vote at any election for the choice of Senators or Representatives in Congress or of electors for President and Vice President."

3

STATEMENT OF HON. ANDREW J. MONTAGUE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.

Mr. MONTAGUE. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this amendment is to prevent alien influence, control, or domination of the Federal Government, for there is danger in from eight to nine States in the Union where unnaturalized aliens are admitted into the body of the electorate and can determine the election not only as to State matters-with which I am not now concerned-but elections with respect to Members of the House of Representatives and Senators of the Congress and of electors for President and Vice President. I submit to the committee that this is a danger which the country should not for a moment acquiesce in, and the only complete remedy I know of is a constitutional amendment.

Mr. VOLSTEAD. Can we pass a law on this subject?

Mr. MONTAGUE. I do not think so. There has been recently a bill introduced, but purely as a war measure. I am not introducing this as a war measure. It is not only a war measure but a peace measure as well. It is sound public policy that no country-no government should submit itself to be influenced or controlled by those who have not been admitted into its body as citizens.

Mr. GARD. Could not the National Congress prescribe the qualifications of those who are to vote for Senators and Representatives, by law?

Mr. MONTAGUE. I do not think so. The Constitution now prescribes the qualifications of electors from the Federal standpoint. They are citizens of the State who vote for members of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. In other words, the present constitutional provision requires the States to qualify any elector who "shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature." (Art. I, sec. 2.) Therefore the qualification for Federal suffrage follows qualification for State suffrage within the limitation just quoted.

Senator Kellogg, I think, has introduced a resolution in the Senate proposing an amendment to the Constitution. I thought I had it with me, but I have not. His amendment is an inhibition upon the State, as I now recall it, prohibiting an unnaturalized alien from voting for a Member of the House of Representatives. It does not extend to the Senators of the Congress or the electors for President and Vice President. It only goes to Members of the lower House.

I shall not argue to you, gentlemen, the supreme necessity of some such Federal amendment. I think it is obvious. It must commend itself to your sense of justice, to your sense of patriotic expediency and sound public policy as essential to the preservation of our Nation. Every Government ought to have the inherent right to protect itself against alien domination, alien influence, and alien control. And, a fortiori, should a nation have the right to protect itself against the positive and affirmative governing power of aliens through the exercise of the ballot?

There are some eight or nine States that permit aliens to vote upon a simple declaration of their purpose to become citizens. May I ask you, Mr. Volstead, is not your State within this category?

Mr. VOLSTEAD. In our State we passed long ago a State provision wiping out that practice. We had it, but it must be 20 years or more since we passed a constitutional amendment to that effect.