McCandless v. United States Ex Rel. Diabo

25 F.2d 71, 1928 U.S. App. LEXIS 2899
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedMarch 9, 1928
Docket3672
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 25 F.2d 71 (McCandless v. United States Ex Rel. Diabo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCandless v. United States Ex Rel. Diabo, 25 F.2d 71, 1928 U.S. App. LEXIS 2899 (3d Cir. 1928).

Opinion

BUFFINGTON, Circuit Judge.

In this habeas corpus case it appears that Paul Diabo, a full-blooded Indian of the Iroquois tribe, known as the Six Nations, was born on a reservation of that tribe in the Dominion of Canada. He first came to the United States in 1912, and from then on made a number of trips to and fro until 1925. These many trips were made by reason of the fact that he worked as a structural iron worker in putting up high buildings. About February 26, 1925, he was arrested on a warrant issued on complaint of the Commissioner of Immigration for the port of Philadelphia for an alleged violation of law in entering the United States without complying with the immigration laws. After hearing, he was by the immigration authorities ordered deported, whereupon he sued out in the court below this writ of habeas corpus.

No question of contagion, moral unfitness, or pauperism is in question, and, as stated in the government’s brief, “the alien is personally unobjectionable, and no deliberate intention to violate the law has been established against him. Paul Diabo appears to be a skilled structural iron worker, constantly employed at a good salary; has a bank account and property in Canada.” After hearing he was discharged from custody, whereupon this appeal was taken, and the question involved is whether the immigration laws of the United States apply to members of the tribe of the Six Nations born in Canada. Enlightened possibly by the status and relations of our own native Indians with reference to our own nation, we note that the unbroken line of decision has been that they stand separate and apart from the native-born citizen, that they are all wards of the nation, and that general acts of Congress do not apply to them, unless so worded as clearly to manifest an intention to include them in their operation. United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 23 S. Ct. 478, 47 L. Ed. 532; Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U. S. 94, 5 S. Ct. 41, 28 L. Ed. 643. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. *72 (30 U. S.) 17, 8 L. Ed. 25, Chief Justice Marshall said: “It may well be doubted whether those tribes whieh reside within the acknowledged boundaries of the United States can,, with strict accuracy, be denominated foreign nations. They may, more correctly, perhaps, be denominated domestic dependent nations. They occupy a territory to whieh we assert a title independent of their will, which must take effeet in point of possession when their right of possession ceases. Meanwhile they .are ini a state of pupilage. Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian,”

By article III of 'the Jay Treaty, made in 1794 between Great Britain and the United States, whereby the boundary line between the latter and Canada was fixed, it was provided :

“It is agreed that it shall at all times be free to his majesty’s subjects, and to the eiti.zens of the United States, and also to the Indians dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and repass by land or inlahd navigation, into the respective territories' and countries of the two parties, on the continent of America (the country within the limits of the Hudson’s Bay Company only excepted).”

The confederation of the Six Nations and the land held by it long preceded the Revolution. The proposed boundary line passed through this land. When the Revolution came, the Six Nations as a whole determined on neutrality, but left the constituent tribes to side with either party, which they did. Naturally the Six Nations resented the establishment of any boundary line through their territory whieh would restrict intercourse and free passage to their people, and remonstrance was made to the assumption of sovereignty over what they regarded, and then occupied, as their own. See Makers of Canada, vol. 3, p. 256. The situation was met by the two countries inserting the article quoted in the treaty. Evidently that article did not create the right of the Indian to pass over land actually in their possession, for, subject to the general dominant right of sovereignty claimed by all European nations based on dis-_ covery, the right of the Indian to possess tha soil until he surrendered his right by sale or treaty has been recognized. In the case cited Chief Justice Marshall said: “The Indians are acknowledged to have an unquestionable, and heretofore unquestioned, right to the lands they occupy, until that right shall be extinguished by a-voluntary cession to our Government.”

Such being the liistorie relation of the Six Nations to the nations making the treaty, and the Indians not being parties thereto, it would seem clear that the quoted extract was not a temporary stipulation as to trade, commerce, mutual rights, and the' like, but was in the nature of a modus vivendi, to be thereafter observed in the future by Canada and the United States in reference to the Indians. Two years .later the provisions of this treaty were broadened by the Treaty of 1796, which provided:

“That no stipulations in any treaty subsequently concluded by either of the contracting parties with any other state or nation, or with any Indian tribe, can be understood to derogate in any manner from the rights of free intercourse and commerce, secured by the aforesaid third article of the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, to the subjects of his majesty and to the citizens of the United States, and to the Indians dwelling on either side of the boundary line aforesaid; but that all the said persons shall remain at full liberty freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation, into the respective territories and countries of the contracting parties, on either side of the said boundary line, and freely to carry on trade and commerce with each other, according to the stipulations of the said third article of the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation.”

If this treaty, whieh as a treaty would have the force of law, is still in force, the petitioner cannot be deported for entering the country under the provisions thereof. But it is contended that, on the general principle that a war between nations subsequent to a treaty ends all prior treaty rights, all provisions of the Jay Treaty came to an end by reason of the War of 1812. But it will be observed that we are not here dealing -with the rights and obligations of the two signatories to that treaty to and'from each other, but with the rights of a third party created by the joint action of the signatories. While it may be contended that in the nature of things treaties and treaty rights end by war, and if they are to again exist it must be by a new treaty, this reasoning does not apply to these Indians. If through the War of 1812 the Six Nations remained neutral, as they had through the Revolutionary War, there was no reason why either of the contending nations in 1812 should desire to change the status of the Six Nations and thereby anger and drive them into hostilities. They had contended, when the Jay Treaty was being negotiated, that they should have free access to all *73 parts of their tribal territory by consent of both nations. And there was no reason why this right should come to an end because the two nations became involved in war, while they remained neutral.

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Bluebook (online)
25 F.2d 71, 1928 U.S. App. LEXIS 2899, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccandless-v-united-states-ex-rel-diabo-ca3-1928.