Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

EXPATRIATION.

Much has been said within a few years for and against the right to expatriate--If to reason from the experience we have had of the Tories during our revolution it would be acknowledged now as it was then, that those that remained, were worse than those that became our open enemies; from hence it would appear that no great evil (or at least the smaller) would result to the United States were liberty given by law to any citizen who may have so little love of country or endearment to his mother society as to expatriate himself from it--Such men can never be considered as valuable citizens in any sense, and the sooner their country is rid of them the better--But to this freedom to expatriate, let there be a condition--for in all countries there is or ought to be laws to punish all who injure it either internally or externally--Then let a law be made granting liberty to any citizen to expatriate himself--but to preserve the public safety, let it be provided as a condition that if he does so without the express permission of the executive, lawfully authorized--he is to be considered as banished and outlawed, and that he shall be forever barred from an asylum or any of the benefits of citizenship in any manner or form, within the United States thereafter-- And let it also be provided when a citizen wishes to reside in foreign countries as a merchant or for education--or to travel--or to improve himself in naval or land tactics--he shall make application to the executive for permission, specifying the country, his object, and length of time he intends, or wishes to be absent from the United States--And should he on proof injure his country, or the citizens of the United States in his absence, be subject to the same penalty as though he had had no permission--If such was the law of the land, it would be easy to ascertain how many real citizens we had in foreign countries and what their object, and whether they were entitled to citizenship again, from the rule of conduct they had pursued--for it is conjectured by many whether there are not some "exclusive patriots" in France, who call themselves Americans, that have forfeited their citizenship on the principle of the well-being of society--for when a country protects a man as a citizen, it ought to punish him if an enemy-- There are few laws, it is believed, that would make a man reflect more seriously than one that would shut the door of his country forever against him, if violated--and there is none but the most abandoned (if such was the law staring him in the face) that would turn rovers--Every wise government fixes the rights of her citizens to a point-- for it can never do wise to suffer them to be friends and enemies as alternate as the seasons.