File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Brunetta Lafara Lingg

© 1997 bllingg@columbia-center.org

Virginia Citizenship 1783

ACTS PASSED AT A GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE 
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

Begun and held at the PUBLIC BUILDINGS in the City of RICHMOND, on 
MONDAY the Twentieth 
Day of OCTOBER, in the Year of our LORD One Thousand Seven Hundred 
and Eighty three.

CHAP.     CCIII.

An ACT for the Admission of Emigrants, and declaring their Rights to 
Citizenship.

SECTION I

WHEREAS it is the policy of all infant States to encourage population, among 
other means, by an easy mode for the admission of foreigners to the rights of 
citizenship ; yet wisdom and safety suggest the propriety of guarding against 
the introduction of secret enemies, and of keeping the offices of government in 
the hands of citizens intimately acquainted with the spirit of the Constitution 
and the genius of the people, as well as permanently attached to the common 
interest;

SECT. 2.  Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly,  That all free 
persons, born within the territory of this Commonwealth ; all persons, not 
being natives, who have obtained a right to citizenship under the Act, intituled, 
" An Act declaring who shall be deemed citizens of this Commonwealth;" and 
also all children, wheresoever born, whose fathers or mothers are or were 
citizens at the time of the birth of such children, shall be deemed citizens of 
this Commonwealth, until they relinquish that character in manner herein after 
mentioned ; and that all persons, other than alien enemies, who shall migrate 
into this State, and shall before some Court of Record give satisfactory proof by 
oath (or being Quakers of Menonists by affirmation) that they intend to reside 
therein, and also take the legal oath, or affirmation, for giving assurance of 
fidelity to the Commonwealth (which oaths or affirmations the Clerk of the 
Court shall enter on record, and give a certificate thereof to the person taking 
the fame, for which he shall receive the fee of one dollar) shall be entitled to all 
the rights, privileges, and advantages of citizens, except that they shall not be 
capable of election or appointment to any office, legislative, executive, or 
judiciary, until an actual residence in the State of two years from the time of 
taking such oaths or affirmations as aforesaid, nor until the shall have evinced 
a permanent attachment to the State, by having intermarried with a citizen of 
this Commonwealth, or a citizen of any other of the United States, or purchased 
lands to the value of one hundred pounds therein.

SECT. 3. Provided always, and be if further enacted, That no person 
whatsoever, having or holding any place or pension from any foreign State or 
Potentate, shall be eligible to any office, legislative, executive, or judiciary, 
within this Commonwealth.  AND in order to preserve to the citizens of this 
Commonwealth, that natural right which all men have of relinquishing the 
society in which birth or accident may have thrown them, and of seeking 
subsistance and happiness elsewhere, and to declare explicitly what shall be 
deemed evidence of an intention in any citizen to exercise that right,

SECT. 4.  Be it further enacted, That whenever any citizen of this 
Commonwealth shall, by deed in writing, under his had and seal, executed in 
the presence of, and subscribed by three witnesses, and by them or two 
of them proved in the General Court, or the court of the County wherein he 
resides, or by open verbal declaration made in either of the said Courts (to be by 
them entered of record) declare that he relinquishes the character of a citizen, 
and shall depart out of this Commonwealth ; such person shall, from the time 
of  his departure, be considered as having exercised his right of expatriation, 
and shall thenceforth be deemed no citizen.

SECT. 5.  And be it further enacted,  That the Act of Assembly passed in the 
year one thousand seven hundred and seventy nine, intituled "An Act declaring 
who shall be deemed citizens of this Commonwealth," shall be, and the fame is 
hereby repealed.

Copied from an 1857 printing.  It is located in the microfiche section of the 
Multnomah County Law Library.  It is (excluding any of my typos overlooked) 
a true and accurate copy including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

© 1997 bllingg@columbia-center.org