CITY OF NEW YORK SS: JAMES DUANE, ESQUIRE, MAYOR, AND THE ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS MAY COME, SEND GREETING : KNOW YE, THAT LEONARD GOETZ - BLACKSMITH IS ADMITTED, RECEIVED AND ALLOWED A FREEMAN AND CITIZEN OF THE SAID CITY; TO HAVE, HOLD, USE AND ENJOY ALL THE BENEFITS, PRIVILEGES, FRANCHISES AND IMMUNITIES WHATSOEVER, GRANTED OR BELONGING TO THE SAID CITY. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, THE SAID MAYOR AND ALDERMEN HAVE CAUSED THE SEAL OF THE SAID CITY TO BE HEREUNTO AFFIXED. WITNESS, JAMES DUANE, ESQUIRE, MAYOR, THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF MAY, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1784 AND OF THE SOVEREIGNTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE STATE THE EIGHTH

Printed oblong 4to broadside, 7" x 10-1/2." Goetz's name and occupation, the day and month, the year 1784 are in ink script. Signed in ink with Duane's elegant signature; and "By order of the Mayor and Aldermen. Robt. Benson Clk." Old folds, Very Good. A rare, unrecorded document. The notion of a "citizen" of a city is unusual in American jurisprudence. Citizenship of a State was undefined in 1784, except by inference. Article VII of New York's Constitution of 1777 acknowledged the concept of "a freeman of the city of New York," defined the qualifications of voters, and authorized the legislature to naturalize "such persons as they shall think proper." The Articles of Confederation, which were in effect in 1784, did not define "citizenship." The U. S. Constitution, ratified in 1788, was similarly silent. The precise definition of a "citizen" would await the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 explicitly to overrule the Dred Scott decision, and recently clarified by the U. S. Supreme Court: all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are deemed citizens of the United States and the State in which they reside. James Duane, a prominent New York lawyer and patriot, was the first Mayor of the City, serving from 1784, after the British evacuation, until 1789. President Washington appointed him a judge. Not located on ESTC, OCLC, Evans, Bristol, or anywhere else.…