Traditionally and especially during the 19th century, immigrants from Ireland to the United States found employment as police officers, as firemen and in other sectors of the public service [1]. The image of the “Irish cop” in cities like New York or Boston is as stereotypical as it gets. I wonder what the citizenship requirements were in days past. I’m assuming that nowadays, you have to be be a U.S. citizen if you want to join, for instance, the ranks of the NYPD. So how was it possible that an immigrant, fresh off the boat, as it were, could become a police officer?
The NYPD specifically does require that officers be citizens, but some other agencies allow non-citizens to be hired.
So if it’s allowed in many places today, in an era with many many more restrictions on immigration, it’s not hard to imagine that the rules were different in the era when anybody who wasn’t Chinese could just show up and live here if they had the means to get here.
A related question: how did one become a “citizen” of a country in the 1800s? Were there tests? What proof did a person have or could have had to demonstrate that he was a citizen?
I am aware of the immigrant stations (i.e. Ellis Island) and their examinations, but those were for entry, not citizenship. If someone hiked across the border and set up housekeeping, after the locals accepted him as a resident-what happened next to establish that person as a citizen?
It doesn’t look like the US required passports until around 1900-though more traveled countries like Great Britain had them by the late 1700s.
As Lord Feldon points out, you do not necessarily have to be a US citizen to hold a position of public trust. For state/local jobs, the state gets to specify. For example, lawyers are considered officers of the court but states cannot impose citizenship requirements for admission to the bar. On the other hand, they are free to impose citizenship requirements for judgeships, sworn law enforcement, and similar roles.
My grandfather left East Galway at the turn of the last century & went to a New England mill town. Later, he became a police officer. He died young & his son (my father) also died young–so I don’t have all the details.
But it was not so difficult to become a naturalized citizen. For Europeans, especially, immigrating & attaining citizenship did not require jumping through hoops & hiring expensive lawyers.
Will check back after more investigation. But requiring members of the force (or the fire dept) to be US citizens would not have barred any but the most recent immigrants.
The Civil Service is a product of the 20th century. In the 19th century cities were run by political machines. The machines took their power from the numbers it amassed, and repaid those voters by providing them with jobs. The machine controlled thousands of jobs; virtually everything a city government had to do - and everything was hand-powered - went to a grateful voter.
Becoming a citizen was easier then in a world before tests:
Becoming a Citizen: Naturalization Records, 1850 - 1930
Minnesota Historical Society
Also note that government jobs were handed out as political patronage. So the political machine that controls the city hands out jobs like cop to their supporters. And these political machines often turn out to be ethnically based. So an Irish-American machine controls the city, and you can only be a cop if you’re the nephew of somebody or other, and all those somebodies turn out to be Irish.
Really ? Doesn’t seem that long ago. I will assume you are aged at least 12.
Perhaps I should have said “previous turn of the century” but I thought “turn of the last century” would mean “about 1900” to most people. Are you one of those dense Anglo-Saxons?
Indade. With an Irish name.