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I was brought to the Honorary Citizenship article via link from the article on Japanese-American Jun Fujita, which said that he received an Honorary Citizenship by an act of Congress, but his name is not included on the list in the Honorary Citizenship Article. Rgleon9986 ( talk) 04:03, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
Its Seven people and not six,Lata Mangeshkar singer from indiaa has also been given the Honorary Citizen of the United States.
REF:1987-Honorary Citizenship of USA in Houston, Texas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.164.92.2 ( talk) 18:53, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
Six people, yes, not five. Thanks. :-) Chris Roy 22:32, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Is the immigration category appropriate? Only two of these people lived in the States. Pcb21| Pete 09:15, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I came here from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov where is mentioned that he got this degree, but he isn't mentioned here Tbc2 04:20, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Is honorary U.S. citizenship a "real" U.S. citizenship - does it carry the right to a U.S. passport or a right of abode in the United States? JAJ 01:17, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
This article says that the Marquis de la Fayette was given honorary citizenship in 2002. Yet Jules Verne's novel From Earth to the Moon mentions la Fayette receiving citizenship, and that book was published in like 1870. Someone should verify that fact.
I suppose this would be the opposite of being only a us national and not a us citizen, being a citizen and not a national 67.84.178.0 ( talk) 04:07, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm wondering why he was given the honor twice. Did the 1824 award cease to be valid at some stage? The later one would seem to be irrelevant, since he already was an honorary citizen. -- JackofOz ( talk) 03:19, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
In response to your recent inquiry citing the article by Patricia Molen van Ee, Specialist in Cartographic History, Geography and Map Division, published in the Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 4, we have determined that the source and timing of Lafayette's becoming an honorary citizen of the United States is incorrect. The one piece of information that we know for certain is that Congress did not proclaim Lafayette an honorary citizen in 1824. We regret this mistake.
The matter is complicated beyond this point. Contemporary sources call into question the accuracy of the Joint Resolution (PL-107-209) and the House Report (107-595) supporting the Joint Resolution dated August 6, 2002, which supposedly made Lafayette an honorary U.S. citizen.
What can be stated clearly is that Lafayette became an honorary citizen of the state of Maryland on December 23, 1784. This made him an American citizen under the Articles of Confederation. Citizenship was not nationalized until passage of Fourteenth Amendment after the Civil War. See Stanley Izerda, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers. Vol. 5, pp 289-290. Izerda, p. 269, n. 1, also states that Connecticut had made him a citizen of that state in October 1784.
There is additional evidence indicating that Lafayette was the first person receiving an honorary citizenship in the United States, and that it was conferred before 2002 .The Library of Congress Exhibition Website for "Churchill and the Great Republic" directly mentions Lafayette's honorary status as a citizen of the United States.
President Kennedy alluded to the Lafayette citizenship in his speech dated April 1963, in announcing the Congressional resolution instructing the President to make Winston Churchill an honorary US citizen; see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, (Washington DC, 1964), item 126, p. 315.
See also The Library of Congress's Interactive Winston Churchill exhibit" < http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/interactive/index.html > which has a portion of the film clip in which Kennedy refers to this issue. After launching the exhibit, click on "Objects" and then "Moving Images." It's the last of three. There President Kennedy specifically states that Churchill is only the second person to receive this honor and that Lafayette was the first.
I cannot explain why the Congressional Report of 2002 states that the matter of honorary citizenship had been explored in 1935, and it was determined by the Department of State that U.S. honorary citizenship could not be conferred through the individual states. See House Report, 107th Congress, second session, to accompany S.J. Res. 13, dated 2002. There is also a reference to honorary citizenship being granted on four prior occasions.
I have noted a number of dates when Lafayette was purported to have become an honorary citizen. Some of the information appears on sites of reputable organizations including universities. By going to the primary sources, we can conclude what was done, but not why.
After having the text of the 1784 Maryland statute pointed out to me, here are my conclusions, which I've incorporated into this article and the one on the Marquis de Lafayette himself:
Upon further review, I think we might have to remove Lafayette from this article completely. (Or, at least, move him down the list.) I recently found two newspaper articles, from 1963 and 1973. They both point out that Churchill, not Lafayette, was the first honorary citizen of the United States since a) it was the individual states, not Congress, that made Lafayette an honorary citizen, and b) since Lafayette's citizenship of the United States is covered under Article Two (as I mention above) and is thus "real", it really shouldn't at all be called "honorary" with the "not real" implication that adjective carries. (If anything the Maryland resolution ought to be seen as a private bill to give him citizenship, and as the article already points out private bills shouldn't be seen as honorary.) Of course, since the newspaper articles were written Congress has indeed said that Lafayette is an honorary citizen of the United States, but not until the 2002 resolution.
So, I propose to do the following:
I rewrote the article to correct for Lafayette, and updated the Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, Winston Churchill, and Honours of Winston Churchill articles accordingly. Other honorary citizens' articles may also need adjusting if they say something like "third to receive the honor." YLee ( talk) 11:44, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
His mother was American, so unless she waived her American citizenship before his birth, he should be an American citizen. ( 24.62.126.170 ( talk) 20:45, 18 April 2010 (UTC))
They were different. He could have claimed U.S. citizenship, but would have to renounce being a British subject. Now he would have dual citizenship at birth. I just found this out. ( 24.62.126.170 ( talk) 04:50, 20 April 2010 (UTC))
I've removed the section on Ferguson. That section was nothing more than trivia in disguise. I'm posting this here since it seems that section has been tolerated for 2 years or so. My reasons were in the edit summary. -- 64.85.216.176 ( talk) 12:24, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
The link to the Public Laws about US Honorary Citizenship DOES NOT WORK. Please update it. Thank you.
Eugen Craciun aka Rudolph Aspirant aka roamsk
¿What About Gerald BULL? Yes, he later had problems, but he did receive such citizenship. 174.25.142.178 ( talk) 21:45, 25 June 2011 (UTC) A REDDSON
Interesting article, with valiant (and successful) battle to describe Lafayette's timing accurately! Well done. But why was William Penn (who d. 1718) made an honorary citizen of the USA? He died 58 years before the "United States" came into existence. How can one be an honorary citizen of a country one never knew? It's akin to making Neil Armstrong an honorary citizen of the Republic of the Moon in the year 2969. What was Congress's rationale for so honouring Penn? And second wife too? According to Penn's Wiki-biog she only visited America for 2 years and preferred England! Penn himself was only on American soil for about 4 years (1681-1684 and Dec 1699-1701). I'm not questioning his right to honours - as a mass landowner, he was a benevolent dictator, and a good Quaker who deserved greater reward in later life. But what was the rationale for making him an honorary citizen of a country that (for him) never existed... exactly how was it justified? in 1984? Under Reagan? Without some explanation, there's a danger it can make 'honorary citizenship' seem bizarre, and attract derision. Perhaps a quote from the award citation (I assume there was one) should be included to throw some light. Pete Hobbs ( talk) 21:59, 11 August 2011 (UTC)
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This new title is very clumsy. "Citizenship of the United States"? IMO, it should be restored to Honorary citizen of the United States. Clarityfiend ( talk) 08:42, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
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I was brought to the Honorary Citizenship article via link from the article on Japanese-American Jun Fujita, which said that he received an Honorary Citizenship by an act of Congress, but his name is not included on the list in the Honorary Citizenship Article. Rgleon9986 ( talk) 04:03, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
Its Seven people and not six,Lata Mangeshkar singer from indiaa has also been given the Honorary Citizen of the United States.
REF:1987-Honorary Citizenship of USA in Houston, Texas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.164.92.2 ( talk) 18:53, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
Six people, yes, not five. Thanks. :-) Chris Roy 22:32, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Is the immigration category appropriate? Only two of these people lived in the States. Pcb21| Pete 09:15, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I came here from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov where is mentioned that he got this degree, but he isn't mentioned here Tbc2 04:20, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Is honorary U.S. citizenship a "real" U.S. citizenship - does it carry the right to a U.S. passport or a right of abode in the United States? JAJ 01:17, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
This article says that the Marquis de la Fayette was given honorary citizenship in 2002. Yet Jules Verne's novel From Earth to the Moon mentions la Fayette receiving citizenship, and that book was published in like 1870. Someone should verify that fact.
I suppose this would be the opposite of being only a us national and not a us citizen, being a citizen and not a national 67.84.178.0 ( talk) 04:07, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm wondering why he was given the honor twice. Did the 1824 award cease to be valid at some stage? The later one would seem to be irrelevant, since he already was an honorary citizen. -- JackofOz ( talk) 03:19, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
In response to your recent inquiry citing the article by Patricia Molen van Ee, Specialist in Cartographic History, Geography and Map Division, published in the Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 4, we have determined that the source and timing of Lafayette's becoming an honorary citizen of the United States is incorrect. The one piece of information that we know for certain is that Congress did not proclaim Lafayette an honorary citizen in 1824. We regret this mistake.
The matter is complicated beyond this point. Contemporary sources call into question the accuracy of the Joint Resolution (PL-107-209) and the House Report (107-595) supporting the Joint Resolution dated August 6, 2002, which supposedly made Lafayette an honorary U.S. citizen.
What can be stated clearly is that Lafayette became an honorary citizen of the state of Maryland on December 23, 1784. This made him an American citizen under the Articles of Confederation. Citizenship was not nationalized until passage of Fourteenth Amendment after the Civil War. See Stanley Izerda, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers. Vol. 5, pp 289-290. Izerda, p. 269, n. 1, also states that Connecticut had made him a citizen of that state in October 1784.
There is additional evidence indicating that Lafayette was the first person receiving an honorary citizenship in the United States, and that it was conferred before 2002 .The Library of Congress Exhibition Website for "Churchill and the Great Republic" directly mentions Lafayette's honorary status as a citizen of the United States.
President Kennedy alluded to the Lafayette citizenship in his speech dated April 1963, in announcing the Congressional resolution instructing the President to make Winston Churchill an honorary US citizen; see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, (Washington DC, 1964), item 126, p. 315.
See also The Library of Congress's Interactive Winston Churchill exhibit" < http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/interactive/index.html > which has a portion of the film clip in which Kennedy refers to this issue. After launching the exhibit, click on "Objects" and then "Moving Images." It's the last of three. There President Kennedy specifically states that Churchill is only the second person to receive this honor and that Lafayette was the first.
I cannot explain why the Congressional Report of 2002 states that the matter of honorary citizenship had been explored in 1935, and it was determined by the Department of State that U.S. honorary citizenship could not be conferred through the individual states. See House Report, 107th Congress, second session, to accompany S.J. Res. 13, dated 2002. There is also a reference to honorary citizenship being granted on four prior occasions.
I have noted a number of dates when Lafayette was purported to have become an honorary citizen. Some of the information appears on sites of reputable organizations including universities. By going to the primary sources, we can conclude what was done, but not why.
After having the text of the 1784 Maryland statute pointed out to me, here are my conclusions, which I've incorporated into this article and the one on the Marquis de Lafayette himself:
Upon further review, I think we might have to remove Lafayette from this article completely. (Or, at least, move him down the list.) I recently found two newspaper articles, from 1963 and 1973. They both point out that Churchill, not Lafayette, was the first honorary citizen of the United States since a) it was the individual states, not Congress, that made Lafayette an honorary citizen, and b) since Lafayette's citizenship of the United States is covered under Article Two (as I mention above) and is thus "real", it really shouldn't at all be called "honorary" with the "not real" implication that adjective carries. (If anything the Maryland resolution ought to be seen as a private bill to give him citizenship, and as the article already points out private bills shouldn't be seen as honorary.) Of course, since the newspaper articles were written Congress has indeed said that Lafayette is an honorary citizen of the United States, but not until the 2002 resolution.
So, I propose to do the following:
I rewrote the article to correct for Lafayette, and updated the Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, Winston Churchill, and Honours of Winston Churchill articles accordingly. Other honorary citizens' articles may also need adjusting if they say something like "third to receive the honor." YLee ( talk) 11:44, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
His mother was American, so unless she waived her American citizenship before his birth, he should be an American citizen. ( 24.62.126.170 ( talk) 20:45, 18 April 2010 (UTC))
They were different. He could have claimed U.S. citizenship, but would have to renounce being a British subject. Now he would have dual citizenship at birth. I just found this out. ( 24.62.126.170 ( talk) 04:50, 20 April 2010 (UTC))
I've removed the section on Ferguson. That section was nothing more than trivia in disguise. I'm posting this here since it seems that section has been tolerated for 2 years or so. My reasons were in the edit summary. -- 64.85.216.176 ( talk) 12:24, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
The link to the Public Laws about US Honorary Citizenship DOES NOT WORK. Please update it. Thank you.
Eugen Craciun aka Rudolph Aspirant aka roamsk
¿What About Gerald BULL? Yes, he later had problems, but he did receive such citizenship. 174.25.142.178 ( talk) 21:45, 25 June 2011 (UTC) A REDDSON
Interesting article, with valiant (and successful) battle to describe Lafayette's timing accurately! Well done. But why was William Penn (who d. 1718) made an honorary citizen of the USA? He died 58 years before the "United States" came into existence. How can one be an honorary citizen of a country one never knew? It's akin to making Neil Armstrong an honorary citizen of the Republic of the Moon in the year 2969. What was Congress's rationale for so honouring Penn? And second wife too? According to Penn's Wiki-biog she only visited America for 2 years and preferred England! Penn himself was only on American soil for about 4 years (1681-1684 and Dec 1699-1701). I'm not questioning his right to honours - as a mass landowner, he was a benevolent dictator, and a good Quaker who deserved greater reward in later life. But what was the rationale for making him an honorary citizen of a country that (for him) never existed... exactly how was it justified? in 1984? Under Reagan? Without some explanation, there's a danger it can make 'honorary citizenship' seem bizarre, and attract derision. Perhaps a quote from the award citation (I assume there was one) should be included to throw some light. Pete Hobbs ( talk) 21:59, 11 August 2011 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 21:50, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 19:56, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
This new title is very clumsy. "Citizenship of the United States"? IMO, it should be restored to Honorary citizen of the United States. Clarityfiend ( talk) 08:42, 6 February 2018 (UTC)