Thread: What citizenship means

I get so tired of the 'you're an immigrant too' crowd, who insists that we have no status as Americans, no standing, no substance to our claims to live in our own country. You don't have to have genes that predate the Mayflower to be something other than an opportunistic johnny-come-lately. But what does our claim to be Americans mean?

When I was doing the family genealogy, I came across citizenship papers for two of my lines. The actual document changed form over the years, some being very terse and dry, but some were verbose about what the step of becoming a citizen meant. The ones in my family were of the verbose genre, and while I turned all that material over to my daughter, I was able to find similar samples on the web. And, I ws deeply moved as I revisited the concepts laid out there.

Here is the passage that got to me from one version of citizenship papers:

"... that he had resided one year and upwards within the State of [whichever], and within the United States of America upwards of five years immediately preceding his application; and it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court, that during the time he had 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; and having declared on his solemn oath before the said Court, that he would support the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, and that he did absolutely and entire renounce and adjure all alligiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state and Sovereignty whatever, and particularly to the [designate appropriate head of state here] of whom he was before a subject. "

So, important elements of citizenship include:
1. being a decent person
2. living here for a required length of time if you hadn't been born here (which presumes legal entry, as they had immigration laws then too)
3. respecting the Constitution and its principles (which presumes some knowlege of it)
4. supporting the nation and its society
5. publicly professing #3
6. renouncing all loyalty to the former state of citizenship

When an immigrant took this great step outlined in #6, he became something other than a German or Chinese man or whatever. The barrier between him and his former life suddenly grew wider than the ocean he may have crossed.

And, going forward, his children would be born into this new state, and an implied expectation that we would comply with the requirements outlined above met us from the moment of our first breath.

It is interesting to compare and contrast this with the attitudes that some recent immigrants and their supporters display.

So, the next time someone discounts our right to aspire to the American dream, claiming that we're just opportunistic immigrants, we can brush them off. We're something different.

Happy 4th of July.

Thanks for a heartfelt reminder!