From: RCB 
Subject: SNET: >> citizenship
Date: 4 Sep 2000 06:17:06 -0400
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Citizen vs. Citizen

Citizen vs. Citizen discusses different types of citizenship.



Man's basic need for government stems from his inability to govern himself.
According to the beliefs passed down from religious antiquity man should be
governed by his Divine Creator who wishes to write his laws upon your minds
and upon your hearts. History clearly shows, from Caine to Nimrod, Saul to
Caesar and Harold to Bill, that men in general have always rejected such a
seemingly abstract spiritual relationship with their Creator. They have
cried for a more secular form of government, finding an imagined stability
in laws and statutes, written upon stone or parchment with the comfort of
their seducing promises of success, affluence and indulgence.



"Nay; but we will have a king over us;" (Samuel 8;19)



It would be convenient for our pride and the comfort of our conscience to
blame the assumed or supposed acts of tyranny by government and its
bureaucracies totally on their usurpation of the law, but would that be
true? Would that be honest? Would that be just? After all if it is lawful
to do with our own what we will then is it not lawful for government to do
with its' own what it wills.



"If we will not be ruled by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants."

                               William Penn.



In order to understand government it would obviously be important to
understand the origin of man's relationship to it. There are many ways to
approach the subject and many words that should be examined in order to
comprehend the nature of the union of man and government.



A citizen was "formerly, a native or inhabitant especially a freeman..."
The word can be used "loosely, a native, inhabitant or denizen [an inhabitant
or occupant] of any place." But a citizen may also be "a member of a state or
nation."19



"Every person is a man, but not every man a person,"20



"Man (homo) is a term of nature; person (persona), of the civil law,"21



"The term `citizen' is distinguishable from `resident' or `inhabitant.' One
may be a citizen of a state without being an inhabitant, or an inhabitant
without being a citizen."22



"Often the terms `citizen' and voter are confused. A voter is a person who
is allowed by law to take part in the government. A citizen is a member of
the nation. A citizen of the United States is a member of the large society
which we call the United States of America."



"In the United States citizenship is defined in the fourteenth amendment to
the Constitution as: `All persons born or naturalized in the United States
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States
and the States wherein they reside.'"



Is everyone who lives in America a citizen of the United States?



"I believe in the United States of America as a government...whose just
powers are derived from the consent of the governed: a democracy in a
republic." 23



The United States Federal government is a political society existing within
the extended jurisdictional authority or dominion of the original Republic
or Republics. "In one sense, the term `sovereign' has for its correlative
`subject.' In this sense. the term can receive no application; for it has
no object in the [Original] Constitution of the United States. Under that
Constitution there are citizens, but no subjects."24



Today citizenship, "in the United States `it is a political obligation'
depending not on ownership of land, but on the enjoyment of the protection
of government; and it `binds the citizen to the observance of all laws' of
his sovereign." 25



"Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into society individuals must
give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest..." Andrew Jackson, March
4, 1833.



So as we have seen the fourteenth amendment uses the word "citizens" as a
word denoting membership as opposed to the former use of the word which
denoted merely an inhabitant. This is not to say that there was not
citizenship of the United States prior to the amendment for there surely
was. The fourteenth was an across the board offer of citizenship as a
member of the United States a federal government.



"Just as the revolutionary Adams opposed the Constitution in Massachusetts,
so did Patrick Henry in Virginia, and the contest in that most important
State of all was prolonged and bitter. He... now declaimed as violently
against the preamble of the Constitution because it began, `We the people
of the United States' instead of `We, the State.' ... Not only Henry but much
abler men, such as Mason, Benjamin Harrison, Munroe, R.H. Lee were also
opposed and debated...others in what was the most acute discussion carried
on anywhere..."



"Owing to the way in which the conventions were held, the great opposition
manifested everywhere, and the management required to secure the barest
majorities for ratification, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion
that the greater part of the people were opposed to the Constitution."



"It was not submitted to the people directly,.."26



"The status of being a citizen" may include a, "Membership in a political
society, implying a duty of allegiance on the part of the member and a duty
of protection on the part of society." 27



"Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the state or country,
or, in a wider sense to all its inhabitants, and are not connected with the
organization or the administration of government. They include the rights
of property, marriage, protection by laws, freedom of contract, trial by
jury, etc."28



An individual who becomes a member or person in a political society also
has civil rights. But the origin of those rights being political are rights
"pertaining or relating to the policy or administration of government.."29
So, "as otherwise defined, civil rights are rights appertaining to a person
in virtue of his citizenship in a state or community. Rights capable of
being enforced or redressed in civil action. Also a term applied to certain
rights secured to citizens of the United States by the thirteenth and
fourteenth amendments to the constitution, and by various acts of congress
made in pursuance thereof." 30



The essential difference here would seem to be that the former "are not
connected with the organization or the administration of government" while
the latter are "subject" to that government.



If the benefit of the latter citizenship includes the duty of subjection
then the assent must require a voluntary consent or else such citizenship
would be nothing more than involuntary servitude. There are countless ways
of demonstrating the consummation of a voluntary consent.



"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among
them bounties, donations and benefits."--Plutarch.



The United States Federal government gives freely to its' citizens but only
after they have bound themselves as eligible members. If all giving was by
obligation there could be no charity. It is clear that the government has
no binding contractual obligation to give what is its own to another.



"A gift is said to be pure and simple when no condition or qualification is
annexed." 31 It is obvious that the government never gives a pure and simple
gift. So it is not only by sworn oaths, or pledges of allegiance that we are
made subject to government but also by acceptance and performance.



"No one is obliged to accept a benefit against his consent. But if he does
not dissent, he will be considered as assenting." (Invitio benificium non
datur. 32



"It is immaterial whether a man gives his assent by words or by acts and
deeds." 33



This being a maxim and fundamental law of nature, all men in possession of
their natural perception cannot deny it. So ignorance of conditions and
constructions of law can be no excuse.



"Merely being native born within the territorial boundaries of the United
States of America does not make such an inhabitant a Citizen of the United
States subject to the jurisdiction of the Fourteenth Amendment." 34 "A
person born in the United States has rights under this amendment (the 14th)
to remain a citizen unless he voluntarily relinquishes the citizenship."35



"Man's primary allegiance is to his vision of truth, And he is under
obligation to affirm it." (J. Addams.) The concept of allegiance is defined
in Black's as, "The obligation of fidelity and obedience which the
individual owes to the government under which he lives, or to his sovereign
in return for the protection he receives. It may be an absolute and
permanent obligation, or it may be a qualified and temporary one.36This of
course only refers to a citizen that is a member as opposed to one that is
a mere inhabitant.



"The civil law reduces the unwilling freedman to his original slavery; but
the laws of the Angloes judge once manumitted as ever after free."37



Art thou called [being] a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be
made free, use [it] rather. (1Co 7:21)(see God vs. Government)



The principle upon which Natural Allegiance stands, although presented under
other names, is the bases of the obedience owed a father by his children.



What is owed society or the body that represents society (government) may
not be allegiance. If for instance a person has also become a "surety" for
the debts of the society he may not simply denounce his obligation
depending on the nature of that surety.



My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, [if] thou hast stricken thy hand
with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art
taken with the words of thy mouth. (Proverbs 6:1,2)



If, "The idea of law has commonly been analyzed as composed of three
elements: first, a command of the lawgiver..; second, the obligation
imposed thereby on the citizen; third, a sanction threatened in the event of
disobedience."38 We can see in this definition of the law that there is an
obligation imposed upon the citizen but this obligation is imposed by the
granting of allegiance by the citizen to the lawgiver.



"Good men hate to sin through love of virtue; bad men through fear of
punishment."39



"Allegiance is, as it were, the essence of the law; it is the bond of
faith."40 Yet, "...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen." (Hebrews 11).



It should be becoming clearer that the granting of allegiance to the
lawgiver is a binding act of faith, whether by proclaimed oath or pledge or
silent acceptance or application and it is the essence of the dominion and
authority of a lawgiver over the citizen.



"`Civil Law,' `Roman Law' and `Roman Civil Law' are convertible phrases,
meaning the same system of jurisprudence."41



"He who is in the womb is considered as born, whenever his benefit is
concerned." 42



The Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act was "for the promotion, the welfare and
hygiene of maternity and infancy and for other purposes," It was passed
with a vote of 63 to 7, and by the house with a vote of 279 to 39, and was
finally signed by the president and became law on Nov. 23, 1921. The act
provided for the current fiscal year (1922) $10,000 for each state
accepting the provisions of the act, and additional sum of $1,000,000.



The bill was a direct outgrowth of a nine year study made by the "Federal
Children's Bureau." Note the Bureau was not the federal bureau for children
but the bureau of the federal children. This act and the acceptance of its
benefits by the states created the "United States birth registration
area."43



"(2)Birth Registration Document. The Social Security Administration (SSA)
may enter into an agreement with officials of a State... to establish, as
part of the official birth registration process, a procedure to assist SSA
in assigning social security numbers to newborn children. Where an agreement
is in effect, a parent, as part of the official birth registration process,
need not complete a Form SS-5 and may request that SSA assign a social
security number to the newborn child.44



This was a clear granting of gifts, gratuities and benefits, by government,
to a child while he was still in the womb of his natural mother. All the
children who were certified by the signature and seal of a natural parent, a
professional doctor and the representing county and state were eligible for
further federal and state benefits as a child of the state and federal
governments.



At one time a friend of mine tried to obtain a social security number for
his nine year old son so that he could have the benefit of a deduction from
his income tax. He was told that he could not get a number for his son
without producing the boy's birth certificate.



Because the boy did not have one (e.g DOB because he was born at home), they
could not grant him the privilege of a Social Security number. As far as
they were concerned the boy "didn't exist" even though he was standing there
before them. The boy was not a child of the state because he had not yet
been legally born. This process of certifying a natural birth as a legal
(or connecting) birth is not unlike being born again.



This certification does not create an everlasting bond of allegiance in
itself but it shows the origins of the process by which a complete and total
allegiance and membership is constructed. It is the beginning of the process
of legally binding the individual on earth to a political or governmental
structure.



"`The tie or ligamen which binds the subject [or citizen] to the king [or
government] in return for that protection which the king [or government]
affords the subject, [or citizen]'45 It consists in `a true and faithful
obedience of the subject to his sovereign.'"46



When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before
thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [be] a man given to appetite.
Be not desirous of his dainties: for they [are] deceitful meat. (Proverbs
23:1, 3)



I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 19:16)



No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)



For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (PHILIPPIANS 3:20)



FOOT NOTES



19 Webster's New World Dict

20 Omnis persona est homo, sed non vicissim.

21 Homo vocabulum est; Persona juris civilis. Calvinus, Lex.

22 Quincy v. Duncan. 4Har.(Del.) 383; etc. (see Black's 3rd.)

23 April 3, 1918, the new American creed was read in Congress.

24 Chishom v.Georgia, 2 Dall. (U.S.) 419,455, 1L Ed 440 (1793).

25 Wallace v. Harmstad, 44 Pa. 492; etc. Black's 3rd Ed. p. 95.

26 History of the U.S. by James Truslow Adams V.1. pp. 258-259.

27 Luria v. U.S., 231 U.S.9,34 S.Ct.10,13,58 l.ed.101.(Black's3rd.p.330)

28 Black's 3rd p. 1559

29 Black's 3rd p. 1375.

30 Black's 3rd p. 1559.

31 Simplex et pura donatio dici poterit, ubi nulla est adjecta conditio nec
modus. Bracton. 1.

32 Dig. 50. 17.69; broom, Max.3d Lond ed. 625. Bouvier's.

33 Non refert an quis assensum suum pr'fert verbis, an rebus ipsis et
factis. 10 Coke, 52.

34 Elk v. Wilkins, Neb (1884), 5s.ct.41,112 U.S. 99, 28 L. Ed. 643.

35 Baker v Rusk, Cal. (1969 236 F. Supp. 1244; Reynolds v. Haskin, C.A.A.
Kan. 1925, 8 F. 2d 473.

36 Black's 3rd Ed. p. 95.

37 Libertinum ingratum leges civiles in pristinalm servitutem redigulnt;
sed leges angiae semel manumissum semper liberum judicant. Co. Litt.137.

38 Bovier's vol.II.Def. of Law.

39 Oderant peccare boni, virtutis anore; oderunt peccare nali, formidine
poenae. Black's 3rd p. 1282.

40 Ligentia est quasi legis essentia; est vinculum fidei. Coke, Litt. 129.

41 Black's 3rd Ed. p. 332.

42 Qui in utero est, pro jam nato habetur questice de ejus commando
qu'ritur.

43 Public Law 97, 67th Congress, Session I, Chap. 135, 1921.

44 20 C.F.R., section 422.103 .

45 1 Bl. Comm. 366. Black's 3rd Ed. p. 95.

46 43 7 Coke, 4b. Black's. 3rd Ed. p 95..

END OF FOOTNOTES



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