the marriage, the court said: "The circumstance that the husband was not a citizen at the time of marriage is wholly immaterial, for he became a citizen afterward ipso facto." Referring to the wife, the court said: "Being a free white woman married to a citizen, [she] comes within the description and the very words of the act of Congress [10 Stat. at L. 604, chap. 71, § 2, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1268], 'and is deemed and taken to be a citizen;' for it is the status of being married to-being the wife of a citizen that makes her one. It can in no possible view make any difference whether the marriage ceremony is performed first and then the husband becomes a citizen, or whether he becomes a citizen first and the marriage afterwards takes place. Whenever the two events concur and come together 'she is a woman married to a citizen.'" See also 14 Ops. Atty.

Gen. 406. The fact that the wife is under twenty-one years of

age does not exclude her from citizenship. ship when her husband becomes a citizen.

57 How. Pr. 229.

She acquires citizen

Renner v. Müller,

The wife of an alien becomes a citizen upon the naturaliza

tion of her husband. People v. Newell, 38 Hun, 78.

It has been

52. Necessity of residence in the United States. contended that an alien woman, in order to be naturalized by marriage to an American citizen, must have resided in the United States for the statutory period of five years. In Burton v. Burton, 1 Keyes, 359, the judges of the court of appeals of New York were divided in opinion upon this point. Mr. Justice Mullin said: "If a residence of five years was not a condition precedent to citizenship, residence for some length of time was most obviously contemplated. Without residence she could not be naturalized, and it is the most essential of all the requirements for naturalization, and cannot be dispensed with, unless the intention to dispense with it is most clearly manifested by

the legislature." But Mr. Justice Wright thought that the act did not require that the woman claiming its benefits should have resided within the United States; and, if it did, he thought the residence of the wife was, by construction of law, the same as that of her husband.

In the opinion of Attorney General Williams (14 Ops. Atty. Gen. 402) an alien woman residing abroad, who has intermarried with a citizen of the United States residing abroad, the marriage having been solemnized abroad, and the parties after marriage continuing to reside abroad, is to be regarded as a citizen of the United States within the meaning of said act, though she may never have resided within the United States.

In Kane v. McCarthy, 63 N. C. 299, it was decided that a woman who, in 1857, married in Ireland a naturalized citizen of the United States, was a citizen of the United States, although she always resided in Ireland.

The circuit court of the United States, in the case of Ware v. Wisner, 50 Fed. 310, held that a nonresident alien woman who marries a citizen of the United States is capable of inheriting, in Iowa, since she thereby becomes a citizen of the United States, under Rev. Stat. § 1994 (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1268).

In Headman v. Rose, 63 Ga. 458, it was held that an alien woman whose husband becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States, is, under § 2 of the act of 1855 (10 Stat. at L. 604, chap. 71, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1268), thereby made a citizen, though she may live at a distance from her husband for years, and never come to the United States until after his death.*

*But Secretary Olney expressed the opinion that the naturalization of a Turkish subject in the United States does not operate to naturalize his wife, who has never been in the United States, and who is at the time dwelling in a foreign country. He said: "The naturalization laws of the United States being obviously framed to permit the bestowal of the franchise of

In the case of Pequignot v. Detroit, 16 Fed. 215, the court said: "All doubt upon the construction to be placed upon the words, 'who might herself be naturalized,' was put at rest by the case of Kelly v. Owen, 7 Wall. 496, 19 L. ed. 283, in which it was held that these terms only limited the application of the law to 'free white women,' inasmuch as the naturalization act existing at the time only required that a person applying for its benefits should be a 'free white person,' and not an alien enemy."

53. Nature of citizenship acquired. What is meant by the phrase, "shall be deemed a citizen," in the section of the Revised Statutes under consideration?

"The phrase, 'shall be deemed a citizen,' in § 1994, Rev. Stat. [U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1268], or as it was in the act of 1855 [10 Stat. at L. 604, chap. 71, § 2], 'shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen,' while it may imply that the person to whom it relates has not actually become a citizen by the ordinary means or in the usual way, as by the judgment of a competent court, upon a proper application and proof, yet it does not follow that such person is on that account practically any the less a citizen. The word 'deemed' is the equivalent of 'considered' or 'judged,' and therefore, whatever an act of Congress requires to be 'deemed' or 'taken' as true of any person or thing must, in law, be considered as having been duly adjudged or established concerning such person or thing, and have force and effect accordingly. When, therefore, Congress declares that an alien woman shall, under certain circumstances, be 'deemed' an American citizen, the effect, when the contingency occurs, is equiva

citizenship upon certain persons of alien birth who are within its jurisdiction, and the application of these statutes being intrusted to the judicia! branch, it is clear that they cannot operate to naturalize by indirection or by executive interpretation a person who is an alien by birth and origin, who has never been within the jurisdiction of the United States, and who at the time may be dwelling within a foreign jurisdiction." S. Doc. No. 83; 1st Session, 54th Congress.

lent to her being naturalized directly by an act of Congress or in the usual mode thereby prescribed." Leonard v. Grant, 6 Sawy. 603, 5 Fed. 16.

The Supreme Court said, in Kelly v. Owen, 7 Wall. 496, 19 L. ed. 283, that the object of the act was to allow the citizenship of the wife "to follow that of her husband, without the necessity of any application for naturalization on her part."

In United States v. Kellar, 11 Biss. 314, 13 Fed. 83, Mr. Justice Harlan said that the woman, "upon her marriage, therefore, with a naturalized citizen of the United States,

became, under the plain words of § 1994 [U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1268], ipso facto, a citizen of the United States, as fully as if she had complied with all the provisions of the statutes upon the subject of naturalization."

And in Haberacker's case, Mr. Wharton, Acting Secretary of State, in an instruction to Mr. Phelps, said: "It is uniformly held, under § 1994 [U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1268], that an alien woman who might herself be lawfully naturalized by marriage to a citizen becomes herself a citizen without any previous declaration or act on her part, or without reference to the previous length of her residence in this country, as fully to all intents and purposes as if she had become a citizen upon her own application and by the judgment of a competent court." Mr. Wharton to Mr. Phelps, March 26, 1891, MSS. Inst. to Germany, For. Rel. 1891, p. 508.

54. Widow and minor children of deceased declarant.-As has been stated heretofore (§ 43), when an alien dies after declaring his intention to become a citizen of the United States, but before he has been admitted to citizenship, the wife and minor children may become citizens by taking the oaths prescribed by law. This is in virtue of the provisions of Rev. Stat. § 2168 (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1332), which reads as follows: "When

any alien who has complied with the first condition specified in § 2165 [U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1328], dies before he is actually naturalized, the widow and the children of such alien shall be considered as citizens of the United States, and shall be entitled to all rights and privileges as such, upon taking the oaths prescribed by law."

It is to be observed that the widow and children do not become citizens upon the death of the husband and father. They must apply to the proper court, submit the requisite proof of the declaration of the alien, and his death, and take the oaths prescribed by the general naturalization laws upon the admission of an alien to citizenship.

55. Citizenship of American woman married to an alien.Under the statute which we have been considering, an alien woman who marries a citizen of the United States is deemed a citizen. Is the converse of this rule true? Does an American woman become an alien by marriage to a foreigner? There is no statutory declaration to that effect.

In the Case of Mrs. Preto (10 Ops. Atty. Gen. 321), a woman born in the United States, of American parents, who married a Spanish subject residing here, and subsequently removed with her husband to Spain, where she lived until his death, Attorney General Bates, in 1862, held that the marriage did not deprive her of her native citizenship.

And in 1877, in Mrs. D'Ambrogia's Case (15 Ops. Atty. Gen. 599) Solicitor General Phillips decided that the marriage of an alien-born woman to a naturalized citizen of the United States conferred on her "a permanent status of citizenship, defeasible only as in the case of other persons;" and, on the authority of Shanks v. Dupont, 3 Pet. 242, 7 L. ed. 666, it was further held that her subsequent marriage with an alien did not affect this

status.