ministrative findings to that effect are so lacking in evidentiary support as to amount to a denial of due process. As pointed out before, this is a denaturalization proceeding in which, if the Government is entitled to attack a finding of attachment as we have assumed, the burden rests upon it to prove the alleged lack of attachment by "clear, unequivocal and convincing" evidence. That burden has not been carried. The Government has not proved that petitioner's beliefs on the subject of force and violence were such that he was not attached to the Constitution in 1927. In the first place this phase of the Government's case is subject to the admitted infirmities of proof by imputation." The difficulties of this method of proof are here increased by the fact that there is, unfortunately, no absolutely accurate test of what a political party's principles are.12 Political writings are often over-exaggerated polemics bearing the imprint of the period and the place in which written. Philosophies cannot generally be studied in vacuo. Meaning may be wholly distorted by lifting sentences out of context, instead of construing them as part of an organic whole. Every utterance of party leaders is not taken as party gospel. And we would deny our experience as men if we did not recognize that official party programs are unfortunately often opportunistic de 41 As Chief Justice (then Mr.) Hughes said in opposing the expulsion of the Socialist members of the New York Assembly: ". . . it is of the essence of the institutions of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal and cannot be attributed to the holding of opinion or to mere intent in the absence of overt acts; . . ." Memorial of the Special Committee Appointed by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York Legislative Documents, vol. 5. 143d Session (1920), No. 30, p. 4. 42 See Chafee, Free Speech in the United States (1941), pp. 219-24. 43 See Note 33, ante. 118 Opinion of the Court. vices as much honored in the breach as in the observance." On the basis of the present record we cannot say that the Communist Party is so different in this respect that its principles stand forth with perfect clarity, and especially is this so with relation to the crucial issue of advocacy of force and violence, upon which the Government admits the evidence is sharply conflicting. The presence of this conflict is the second weakness in the Government's chain of proof. It is not eliminated by assiduously adding further excerpts from the documents in evidence to those culled out by the Government. 46 The reality of the conflict in the record before us can be pointed out quickly. Of the relevant prior to 1927 documents relied upon by the Government three are writings of outstanding Marxist philosophers, and leaders, the fourth is a world program.15 The Manifesto of 1848 was proclaimed in an autocratic Europe engaged in suppressing the abortive liberal revolutions of that year. With this background, its tone is not surprising. Its authors later stated, however, that there were certain countries, "such as the United States and England in which the workers may hope to secure their ends by peaceful means." 47 Lenin doubted this in his militant work, The State and Revolution, but this was written on the eve of the Bolshevist revolution in Russia and may be interpreted as intended in part to justify the Bolshevist "See Bryce, the American Commonwealth (1915) vol. II, p. 334; III Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, p. 164. 45 See Notes 35 to 38 inclusive, ante. 46 Petitioner testified that he believed its principles, particularly as they applied to the period and country in which written. See Note 35, ante. "Marx, Amsterdam Speech of 1872; see also Engels' preface to the First English Translation of Capital (1886). Opinion of the Court. 320 U.S. course and refute the anarchists and social democrats.48 Stalin declared that Marx's exemption for the United States and England was no longer valid." He wrote, however, that "the proposition that the prestige of the Party can be built upon violence . . . is absurd and absolutely incompatible with Leninism." 50 And Lenin wrote "In order to obtain the power of the state the class conscious workers must win the majority to their side. As long as no violence is used against the masses, there is no other road to power. We are not Blanquists, we are not in favor of the seizure of power by a minority." " The 1938 Constitution of the Communist Party of the United States, which petitioner claimed to be the first and only written constitution ever officially adopted by the Party and which he asserted enunciated the principles of the Party as he understood them from the beginning 51 48 Lenin's remarks on England have been interpreted as simply predicting, not advocating, the use of violence there. See the introduction to Strachey, The Coming Struggle for Power (1935). 49 See Note 38, ante. 50 Stalin, Leninism, vol. I, pp. 282-83. Put in evidence by petitioner. 51 Lenin, Selected Works, vol. VI. Put in evidence by petitioner. In the same work is the following: "Marxism is an extremely profound and many sided doctrine. It is, therefore, not surprising that scraps of quotations from Marxespecially when the quotations are not to the point-can always be found among the 'arguments' of those who are breaking with Marxism. A military conspiracy is Blanquism if it is not organized by the party of a definite class; if its organizers have not reckoned with the political situation in general and the international situation in particular; if the party in question does not enjoy the sympathy of the majority of the people, as proved by definite facts; if the development of events in the revolution has not led to the virtual dissipation of the illusions of compromise entertained by the petty bourgeoisie; if the majority of the organs of the revolutionary struggle which are recognized to be 'authoritative' or have otherwise established themselves, such as the Soviets, have not been won over; if in the army (in time of war) sentiments hostile to a government which drags out an unjust war 118 Opinion of the Court. of his membership, ostensibly eschews resort to force and violence as an element of Party tactics.52 A tenable conclusion from the foregoing is that the Party in 1927 desired to achieve its purpose by peaceful and democratic means, and as a theoretical matter justified the use of force and violence only as a method of preventing an attempted forcible counter-overthrow once the Party had obtained control in a peaceful manner, or as a method of last resort to enforce the majority will if at some indefinite future time because of peculiar circumstances constitutional or peaceful channels were no longer open. There is a material difference between agitation and exhortation calling for present violent action which creates a clear and present danger of public disorder or other substantive evil, and mere doctrinal justification or prediction of the use of force under hypothetical conditions at some indefinite future time-prediction that is not calculated or intended to be presently acted upon, thus against the will of the people have not become fully matured; if the slogans of the insurrection (such as 'All power to the Soviets,' 'Land to the peasants,' 'Immediate proposal of a democratic peace to all the belligerent peoples, coupled with the immediate abrogation of all secret treaties and secret diplomacy,' etc.) have not acquired the widest renown and popularity; if the advanced workers are not convinced of the desperate situation of the masses and of the support of the countryside, as demonstrated by an energetic peasant movement, or by a revolt against the landlords and against the government that defends the landlords; if the economic situation in the country offers any real hope of a favorable solution of the crisis by peaceful and parliamentary means." 52 Article X, § 5. Party members found to be strike-breakers, degenerates, habitual drunkards, betrayers of Party confidence, provocateurs, advocates of terrorism and violence as a method of Party procedure, or members whose actions are detrimental to the Party and the working class, shall be summarily dismissed from positions of responsibility, expelled from the Party and exposed before the general public. Opinion of the Court. 320 U.S. leaving opportunity for general discussion and the calm processes of thought and reason. Cf. Bridges v. California, 314 U. S. 252, and Justice Brandeis' concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U. S. 357, 372-80. See also Taylor v. Mississippi, 319 U. S. 583. Because of this difference we may assume that Congress intended, by the general test of "attachment" in the 1906 Act, to deny naturalization to persons falling into the first category but not to those in the second. Such a construction of the statute is to be favored because it preserves for novitiates as well as citizens the full benefit of that freedom of thought which is a fundamental feature of our political institutions. Under the conflicting evidence in this case we cannot say that the Government has proved by such a preponderance of the evidence that the issue is not in doubt, that the attitude of the Communist Party of the United States in 1927 towards force and violence was not susceptible of classification in the second category. Petitioner testified that he subscribed to this interpretation of Party principles when he was naturalized, and nothing in his conduct is inconsistent with that testimony. We conclude that the Government has not carried its burden of proving by "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" evidence which does not leave "the issue in doubt," that petitioner obtained his citizenship illegally. In so holding we do not decide what interpretation of the Party's attitude toward force and violence is the most probable on the basis of the present record, or that petitioner's testimony is acceptable at face value. We hold only that where two interpretations of an organization's program are possible, the one reprehensible and a bar to naturalization and the other permissible, a court in a denaturalization proceeding, assuming that it can re-examine a finding of attachment upon a charge of illegal procurement, is not justified in canceling a certificate of citizenship by imputing the reprehensible interpretation to a |