A Peculiar Relation  “a peculiar relation to the national
government  “Quotes from the Supreme Court citizenship case of
Wong Kim Ark, 1898  The courts remarks included: The real object
of the 14th amendment of the constitution [defining U.S.
citizenship], in qualifying the words “all persons born in the
United States” by the addition of  “and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof,’ would appear to have been to exclude, by
the fewest and fittest words (besides children of members of the
Indian tribes, standing in a peculiar relation to the national
government, unknown to the common law), the two classes of
cases,—children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation, and
children of diplomatic representatives of a foreign state,—both
of which, as has already been shown, by the law of England and
by our own law, from the time of the first settlement of the
English colonies in America, had been recognized exceptions to
the fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the
country…” This paragraph includes a stat