Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-06-27

States even that were something distinct from citizen
ship of the several States in the contemplation of the
Constitution This cannot be said of other clauses of the
Constitution, which proceed to refer to.
The citizens of each State shall be entitled all the
privileges and immunes of citizens of the several
States Nowhere else In the Constitution is there anv
thing concerning general citizenship; but here prv
legcs and mmunities be enjoyed throughout the Uni
ted States under and by force of the national compact
granted and secured In selecting those who
enjoy these national rights of citizenship, how they
described? As citizens of each State 1t is to them
these national rights secured The qualification for
them is not to be looked for any provision of the
sttution or laws of the United States They be
citizens of the several States, and such the priv
leges and mmuntes of general citizenship derived from
and guaranteed by the Constitution be enjoyed by
them 1t would seem that if it had been intended to
constitute class of native born persons within the
States who should derive their citizenship of the United
States from the action of the Federal Government this
was an occasion for referring them 1t be sup
posed that it the purpose this article to confer the
privileges and immunites of citizens in all the States
upon persons not citizens of the United States.
And if it intended to these rights only to
citizens of the United States how has the Constitution
here described such persons Simply citizens of each
State.
But, further: Though, shall presently fully
state do not think the enjoyment of the elective fran
chise essential to citizenship, there be doubt is
one OF the chleest attributes of citizenship under the
American constitutions and the just and constitutional
possession of this right is decisive evidence of citizen
ship The provisions made by constitution this SUBJ
ject must therefore be looked te bearing directly
the question what persons citizens under that cons
tution and being decisive to this extent, that all
such persons allowed by the Constitution to exer-
else the elective franchise and thus to participate in the
Government of the United States be deemed citi
! zens Of the United States.
Here again. the consideration presses itself upon u.s.
that if there designed be particular class of
tive born persons within the States deriving their citi
from The 1au af tho Init od
States, they should at least have been referred as
those by whom the President and Huse of Representa-
tves were to be elected and to whom they should be
sponsible.
Instead of that again find this subject referred to
the laws Of the several States The electors of Presi
dent to be appointed in such the Legsla
ture of each State may direct and the qualifications of
electors of members of the House of Representatives shall
be the for electors of the branch
of the State Legislature.
Laying aside them the of Aliens concerning which
the Constitution of the United States has provided and
conhning view to free persons orn within the
raj States find that the Constitution has recognised
the general principle of public law that allegiance and
citizenship depend the place of BIRTH that it has not
attempted practically to apply this principle by desg
mating the particular classes Of persons who should
should not under it; that when the Con-
stltution for to the question: what free per-
sons born within the several States citizens of the
United States, the only answer receive from any
of its express provisions u.s. the citizens of the several
States to enjoy the privileges and immunes of cit
in every State and their franchise electors under
the Constitution depends on their citizenship in the se
vera States. Add to this that the Constitution
daned by the citizens of the several Sate that they
the people of the United States for whom and
whose poserity the Government declared in the pre-
ambe of the Constitution to be made that each of them
citizen of the United States at the time of the
adoption of the Constitution within the meaning of those
words in that instruments that by them the Government
was to be and was in fact organized and that power
is conferred the Government of the Union dscrmi
nate between them disfranchise any of them-the
necessary conclusion is that those persons born within
the several States who by force of their respective
stutions and laws citizens of the State thereby
citizens of the United States.
may be proper here notice some supposed objec-
tions to this view of the subject.
1t has been often asserted that the Constitution
made exclusively by and for the white 1t has al
ready been shown that in five of the thirteen original
States colored persons then possessed the elective fran
chise and among those by whom the Constitution
ordained and established If it is not true, in
point of fact that the Constitution made exclusively
by the white And that it was made exclusively
for the white is in my opinion only assump
ton not warranted by any thing in the Constitution but
contradiced by its opening declaration, that 1t
daned and established by the people of the United States
for themselves and their posterity And free colored
persons then citizens of at least five States and
in every part of the people of the United States
they among those for whom and whose postery the
Constitution was ordained and established.
Again it has been objected that if the Constitution has
left to the several States the rghtfu power determine
States, the States may make aliens citizens.
The answer is obvious. The Constitution has left to
the States the determination what persons born within
their respective limits shall acquire by birth citizenship
of the United States; it has left them any power
to prescribe any rule for the removal of the disabilities
of alenage. This power is exclusively in Congress
1t has been further objected that if free coored per-
sons, born within particular State and made citizens
of that State by its constitution and laws thereby
made citizens of the United States then under the
cond section of the fourth article of the Constitution
such persons would be entitled all the privileges and
immuntes of citizens in the several States and, if
then colored persons could and be eligible to not
only Federal offices, but Offices in those States
whose constitutions and laws dsqualify eoored persons
from voting or being elected to Office.
But this position rests upon assumption which
deem untenable Its basis is, that be deemed
citizen of the United States who is entitled to
joy all the privileges and franchises which conferred
on any citizen GSee Lit. Kentucky R., 326. That
this is true, under the Constitution of the United
States, seems to me clear.
naturazed citizen cannot be President of the Uni
ted States Senator till after the lapse of nine years.
nor Representative till after the lapse of years.
from his naturalization. Yet, naturazed he
is certainly citizen of the United States Nor is any
inhabant of the District of Columbia of either of the
Territories eligible to the Office of Senator Represent
alive in Congress- though they may be citizens of the
United States. So, in all the States, PERSONS
though citizens, cannot vote cannot hold office, either
on account Of their age, the want of the neces
sary legal qualifications The truth is that citizenship
under the Constitution e the United States is not de-
pendent on the possession of any particular political
even of all civil rights and any attempt to define it
must lead to To what citizens the elective fran
by each State in accordance with its views of the
necessities condition What