The effects of the late civil strife have been to free the slave and make him a citizen. Yet he is not possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it. This is wrong, and should be corrected. To this correction I stand committed, so far as Executive influence can avail.
Good roads, good schools and good churches are a sure sign of the best citizenship produced by a free republic. How about our roads?
Citizenship is no light trifle to be jeopardized any moment Congress decides to do so under the name of one of its general or implied grants of power.
It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
Our government was designed to be run by informed, engaged citizens. We have an incredibly dangerous form of government for people who don't know how it works.
Before Man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.
The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight
What does naturalization give? All that belongs to the character of a British Subject. What does it take away? All that does not appertain to that character. It makes the party ipso facto a British Subject, to all intents and purposes.