the front. Now, since by the combined efforts of our brave
soldiers, white and black, the military power of the South has been
overthrown, and her Representatives are as eager to resume their
places on this floor as five years ago they were to quit them for a
place in the rebel army, we are told that, having been victorious, it
becomes a great nation like ours to be magnanimous. I answer, it is
far more becoming to be just. I am willing to carry my magnanimity to
the verge of justice, but not one step beyond. I will go with him who
goes furthest in acts of generosity toward our former enemies, unless
those acts will be prejudicial to our friends. But when you advise me
to sacrifice those who have stood by us during the war, in order to
conciliate unrepentant rebels, whose hearts still burn with
ill-suppressed hatred to the Government, I scorn your counsel."

Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, said: "I agree with the gentleman on the
other side of the House, that this bill can not be passed under that
clause of the Constitution which provides that Congress may pass
uniform rules of naturalization. Under that clause it is my opinion
that the act of naturalization must not only be the act of the
Government, but also the act of the individual alien, by which he
renounces his former allegiance and accepts the new one. And that
proposition and distinction will be found, I think, in all judicious
arguments upon the subject.

"There is another class of persons well recognized, not only in our
constitutional history, but also by the laws of nations, who are not
foreigners, who occupy an intermediate position, and that intermediate
position is defined by the laws of nations by the word 'subjects.'
Subjects are all persons who, being born in a given country, and under
a given government, do not owe an allegiance to any other government.

"To that class in this country, according to the decisions of our
courts hitherto, belong American Indians and slaves, and, according to
the Dred Scott decision, persons of African descent whose ancestors
were slaves. All these were subjects by every principle of
international as well as of settled constitutional law in this
country.

"Now, then, to that class belong the persons who are naturalized by
this bill. If they were not, indeed, citizens hitherto, they were at
least subjects of this Government, by reason of their birth, and by
reason of the fact that they owed no foreign allegiance.

"That