Subject
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
n. An individual member of a nation, considered as owing obedience to its laws. republic; or, as Bouvier expresses nearly the same idea, the term is used of an individual member of a nation who is subject to the laws, in contradistinction to citizen, which is applied to the same individual when considering his political rights. Compare Citizen. Thus the supreme court has held that, in the Spanish treaty of 1795, the terms " subjects," " people," and " inhabitants " are indiscriminately used as synonymous. When applied to persons owing allegiance to Spain, " subjects " must be construed in the same sense as ' ' citizens " or " inhabitants," when applied to persons owing allegiance to the United States.
The Pizarro, 2 Wheat. 227, 246.