Episode 2 of 4

House Committee Report on Nationality

When: January 1868
Where: House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Part of: United States Expatriation Act of 1868

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs issued a report arguing against perpetual allegiance and recognizing the right to renounce citizenship.

In January 1868, the Committee argued that countries permitting emigration implicitly recognized the right to renounce citizenship. This report followed Johnson's Third Annual Message, which stated the issue perplexed the public mind and impaired national authority abroad.

Sources

Expatriation Act of 1868 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.