4. It may be lost by formal renunciation, but the abandonment will not be presumed without it, even from a lifetime of residence abroad; but the government, with most civil ized governments at present, recognizes full right to change allegiance at will. This was one of the issues in the War of 1812, Great Britain firmly refusing to recognize it; and it was not till 1870 that that country formally ad mitted that right.
5. Dual allegiance. The nature of the obli gations is different: any one may be a citizen of the United States, yet not of any particular State, but not vice-versa; and as the citizenship of the nation is the more universal, so it is the higher sanction. The two could not in fact come into conflict except through an act of secession, which must be fought out, so that the question is academic, as short of that the whole matter would involve a case in the Su preme Court, pending which the question would be in abeyance; but in case of forcible resistance of a State to a decree of the nation, the citizen's first allegiance is to the latter. Further than this, however, the national government cannot go beyond the scope of its reserved powers; and a State can go very far in the direction of abolishing even the civil rights of its citizens under the shelter of this flexible permission. It
should be noted that the right of citizenship is totally unconnected in essence with the right of suffrage or the elective franchise. The former is an elemental right of all born among, or who have cast in their lot with, a civil society; the right to the protection of its laws and its strength, to a share in its benefits and its chari ties. The latter, a right to share in the gov ernmental management of a society, is a mere question of the best machinery of management, and dependent on the fitness or power of indi viduals or classes to help guide that machinery. The unfit or weak are lust as much citizens as the fit or the strong, by natural right ; women and minors, defectives and criminals, have the fullest right to claim the protection of the laws, by themselves or their natural or appointed guardians. The suffrage is only a substitute for a battle, assuming that the larger body could outfight the smaller; and admission to it lies in the discretion of the fighting body.
See ALIEN ; CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES; NATURALIZATION). Consult Sheldon, W. L., 'Citizenship> (Chicago 1905) ; Van Dyne, F., of the United States' (Rochester 1904) ; Wise, J. S., 'A Treatise on Citizenship) (Northport 1906).