PREFACE.

THIS pamphlet is intended for the use of aliens, who

desire to become citizens of the United States. Its purpose is to help them in obtaining a rudimentary knowledge of the leading principles of our government, with the hope that after naturalization they may intelligently perform the duties of citizenship.

The judges of the various courts to whom the functions of naturalization have been delegated, have expressed in emphatic terms the necessity devolving upon applicants for citizenship of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the system of our government and the mode of election to and workings of our different Federal and State institutions.

In the limited space at my disposal I have endeavored to convey, in such a manner as may be easily understood, information on every subject of importance with which it is essential that a citizen of our country should be conversant.

The Author.

IMPORTANT TO APPLICANTS FOR CITIZENSHIP.

If the applicant intends to be naturalized in the State courts (the Supreme Court in the respective Judicial Districts and the County Courts in the respective counties), he should not delay filing his petition until within a few days of the required ninety days' citizenship necessary for voting. (See qualifications for voting, page 41.) The reason for this is that it is provided by Chap. 927, Sec. 3, Laws of 1895, (see page 14) that every application shall be filed in the court to which it is presented at least 14 days before final action thereon can be taken; so that to entitle the petitioner to vote at the next ensuing election, the petition must be filed at least 105 days prior to election day. In the United States Courts a notice of fourteen days is not required, and aliens may become citizens any day on application; they must, however, in accordance with the Constitution of New York, be citizens ninety days before election day to be qualified to vote.

NATURALIZATION LAWS.

Revised Statutes of the United States.

TITLE XXX.

SECTION 2165.

NATURALIZATION.

An alien may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States in the following manner, and not otherwise :

First. He shall declare on oath, before a Circuit or District Court of the United States, or a District or Supreme Court of the Territories, or a Court of Record of any of the States having common-law jurisdiction, and a seal and clerk, two years, at least, prior to his admission, that it is bona fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty and particularly by name, to the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of which the alien may be at the time a citizen or subject.

Second. He shall at the time of his application to be admitted, declare, on oath, before some one of the courts above specified, that he will support the constitution of the United States, and that he absolutely and entirely renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty; and, particularly, by name, to the prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of which he was before a citizen or subject; which proceedings shall be recorded by the clerk of the

court.

Third. It shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court admitting such alien that he has resided within the United States five years at least, and within the State or Territory where such court is at the time held, one year at least; and that during that time he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same; but the oath of the applicant shall in no case be allowed to prove his residence.

Aliens, how naturalized.

Declaration of intention.

Oath to support the Constitution of the

United States.

Residence in the United States, or States, and good moral character.

Titles of nobility to be renounced.

Declaration for naturalization, how made.

Aliens honorably discharged from military

service.

Minor residents.

Fourth.

In case the alien applying to be admitted to citizenship has borne any hereditary title, or been of any of the orders of nobility in the kingdom or state from which he came, he shall, in addition to the above requisites, make an express renunciation of his title or order of nobility in the court to which his application is made, and his renunciation shall be recorded in the court.

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Fifth (This relates to persons residing within the United States before 29th January, 1795.)

Sixth.-(The first part of which relates to persons residing within the United States between 18th June, 1798, and 18th June, 1812.)

***Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, required by section two thousand one hundred and sixtyfive of the Revised Statutes of the United States, may be made by an alien before the clerk of any of the courts named in said section two thousand one hundred and sixty-five; and all such declarations heretofore made before any such clerk are hereby declared as legal and valid as if made before one of the courts named in said section.

SECTION 2166. Any alien, of the age of twenty-one years and upward who has enlisted, or may enlist, in the armies of the United States, either the regular or the volunteer forces, and has been, or may be hereafter, honorably discharged, shall be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, upon his petition, without any previous declaration of his intention to become such; 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 now provided by law, be satisfied by competent proof of such person's having been honorably discharged from the service of the United States.

SECTION 2167. Any alien, being under the age of twenty-one years, who has resided in the United States three years next preceding his arriving at that age, and who has continued to reside therein to the time he may make application to be admitted a citizen thereof, may, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, and after he has resided five years within the United States, including the three years of his minority, be admitted a citizen of the United States, without having made the declaration required in the first condition of section twenty-one hundred and sixty-five; but such alien shall make the declaration required therein at the