Posted by MARTIN on September 19, 1998 at 00:51:03:
In Reply to: Re: Political rights of federal citizens are franchises, held as privileges posted by djf on September 19, 1998 at 00:22:47:
After the 1861-65 war the U.S. government became the conqueror and all the states in the Union were thus re-formed as Franchisees (political subdivisions) of the Federal Corporation.
The key to when the states became Federal Franchisees is related to the date when such states enacted the Field Code in law. The Field Code was a codification of the common law that was adopted first, by New York and by California in 1872.
"Citizenship is a privilege not due of common right, and one claiming it in justification or excuse of an act otherwise illegal may fairly be called upon to prove his claim good." Morrison v. California (1934) 291 U.S. 82, 54 S.Ct. 281, 78 L.Ed. 664.
The term "citizen" as understood in our law, is precisely analogous to the term "subject" in the common law. Hennessay v. Richardson Drug Co., 189 U.S. 25, 23 S.Ct. 532, 47 L.Ed. 697.
40th Cong., 3rd Sess. (Jan. 23, 1869) Suffrage, House, p. 559.
Mr. Boatel: One may, no doubt, be a citizen by birth as well as a subject, but subject and citizen are evidently words of different import, and it indisputably requires something more to make a citizen than it does to make a subject. It is, in fact, not the place of a man's birth, but the rights and privileges he may be entitled to enjoy which make him a citizen.