The Oath That Failed: A Chinese Registration Case Collapses
A Seattle federal commissioner rules that deputy collectors had no authority to administer the oath required by the Chinese registration laws—undercutting a perjury charge against Chin Un Chong.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Chin Un Chong, charged with having sworn falsely before a deputy collector of internal revenue in his application for a certificate of residence, obtained an important ruling yesterday from United States Commissioner [name omitted in OCR]. The commissioner held that the act of May 5, 1892, and its supplement of November 1, 1893, required Chinese residents within the limits of the United States to apply to the collector of their district for a certificate of residence, and that the secretary of the treasury was authorized to make rules for enforcing the act. But he ruled that the statutes did not give deputy collectors authority to administer the oaths required in Chinese registration proceedings, and that the treasury regulations directing them to do so were not sufficient to justify a prosecution for perjury. The United States district attorney gave notice of appeal, and the question will be argued at Washington City.
“The regulations of the treasury department directing deputy collectors to administer oaths is not sufficient to justify a prosecution for perjury.”
The Geary Act’s registration regime forced Chinese residents to carry certificates of residence—an early “show your papers” system. This 1895 ruling shows how a hostile law could still be fought over the technical question of who had the power to swear an oath. The tension between documentary status, federal authority, and immigrant lives is still with us.
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