is intention to become a citizen, dies before he is
actually naturalized, his widow and children shall be
considered citizens, entitled to all rights and privileges
as such, on taking the required oath.

If a foreign-born woman, by becoming a naturalized, citizen, is
entitled to all rights and privileges of citizenship, is not a
native-born woman by her National citizenship, possessed of equal
rights and privileges?

The question of the masculine pronouns, yes and nouns too, has
been settled by the United States Supreme Court, in the case of
Silver _vs._ Ladd, December, 1868, in a decision as to whether a
woman was entitled to lands under the Oregon donation law of
1850. Elizabeth Cruthers, a widow, settled upon a claim and
received patents. She died, and her son was heir. He died. Then
Messrs. Ladd & Nott took possession, under the general
pre-emption law, December, 1861. The administrator, E. P. Silver,
applied for a writ of ejectment at the land office in Oregon
City. Both the Register and Receiver decided that an unmarried
woman could not hold land under that law. The Commissioner of the
General Land Office, at Washington, and the Secretary of the
Interior, also gave adverse opinions. Here patents were issued to
Ladd & Nott, and duly recorded. Then a suit was brought to set
aside Ladd's patent, and it was carried through all the State
Courts and the Supreme Court of Oregon; each, in turn, giving
adverse decisions. At last, in the United States Supreme Court,
Associate Justice Miller reversed the decisions of all the lower
tribunals, and ordered the land back to the heirs of Mrs.
Cruthers. The Court said:

In construing a benevolent statute of the government, made
for the benefit of its own citizens, inviting and
encouraging them to settle on its distant public lands, the
words "single man," and "unmarried man" may, especially if
aided by the context and other parts of the statute, be
taken in a generic sense. Held, accordingly, that the fourth
section of the Act of Congress, of September 27th, 1850,
granting by way of donation, lands in Oregon Territory, to
every white settler or occupant, American half-breed Indians
included, embraced within the term single man an un