The Initial Immigration Debate
The fact that every American citizen is an immigrant or is descended from immigrants, is probably the single greatest characteristic distinguishing the U.S. from all other countries. To be American was, originally, to be a part of a voluntary melting pot of humanity, cultures, and customs. Our founding fathers recognized the freedom of a voluntary citizenship and declared this to be so as they wrote the substance of our government, and the legislation of 1790 which established the law of early immigration and naturalization.
At the time of the establishment of an Independent American government, most Americans held British citizenship, due to themselves or their parents having been born in Britain. Birthright citizenship under British law was first formally made clear in Calvin's Case of 1608. " Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England had argued that the idea of birthright citizenship was an inheritance form the 'foedal system'- it derives from the 'mutual trust of confidence subsisting between the lord and vassal.' " The Declaration of Independence assumed the liberty of personal consent in citizenship with the well known opening " When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political band which have connected them...." Another offense of the crown enumerated in a long list of grievances was " He has endeavored to prevent the population of the States; for that purpose obstructing the laws of Naturalization of Foreigners." This protest was seen by the Crown as an arrogant denial of feudal rights and authority long established. It is also one of the few points in which American law threw off its English parent completely, and did not revert back to birthright citizenship until the adumbrated passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Voluntary citizenship established, it was important for the government to declare to whom this advantage was available.
When our government was founded, it was not a recreation of something earlier tried or established. The Declaration of Independence claimed Christian truths, chiefly inalienable rights granted by God. " The object was to assert, not to discover new truths," Madison stated to Jefferson via pen years after the fact. Because America was so diametrically opposed in government to the mother countries of her people, it was crucial that all newcomers " by an intermixture with our people, they or their descendants, yet assimilated to our customs, measures, laws: in a word, soon become our people." And so the quandary stood; to preserve an infant Republic while continuing to allow an influx of peoples completely unschooled in the ideologies and religion that gave it birth.
Following The War of Independence, the population stood at about three million, averaging 4.5 persons per square mile. The U.S. covered an amazing quantity of land and a thriving population was necessary to ensure her safety and productivity. The Fourth Article of Confederation was confusing and inadequate in establishing a rule of law concerning naturalization, but " The new Constitution [ was authorized] to establish a uniform rule of naturalization throughout the United States."
As Congress debated the issue of qualified applicants for citizenship, it was clear that the safety of the Republic and the American way of life was the top priority. Already ethnic communities had sprung up which remained cut off from Americans, where language and customs from their mother countries were retained and protected. James Madison declared " America should welcome the immigrant who could assimilate, but exclude the immigrant who could not readily incorporate himself into our society." Alexander Hamilton echoed these sentiments a bit more specifically; "the safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of the common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of citizens from foreign bias and prejudice; and on the love of country."
The final product of the debates was the 1790 Naturalization Act, which was surprisingly lenient. It left citizenship open to any white, free man with 2 years American residency, who swore an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. Within the next decade the laws would become increasingly strict in the effort to protect our great Republic from the threat of an immigrant population ignorant or unwilling to embrace the principles that gave it birth.
