1291. CITIZENS, Fraudulent and real.
—[As to citizens] there is a distinction which we ought to make ourselves, and with which
the belligerent powers [France and England]
ought to be content. Where, after the commencement
of a war, a merchant of either
comes here and is naturalized, the purpose is
probably fraudulent against the other, and intended
to cloak their commerce under our
flag. This we should honestly discountenance,
and never reclaim their property when captured.
But merchants from either, settled
and made citizens before a war, are citizens
to every purpose of commerce, and not to be
distinguished in our proceedings from natives.
Every attempt of Great Britain to
enforce her principle of “once a subject, always
a subject” beyond the case of her own
subjects, ought to be repelled.—
To Albert Gallatin.
Ford ed., viii, 251.
(July. 1803)
See Expatriation.
