On this day in 1790, the second session of the first Congress approved the new nation’s initial effort to codify the rules under which foreign-born persons could become U.S. citizens.
The Naturalization Act of 1790 specified that “any alien, being a free white person,” could apply for citizenship, so long as he or she lived in the United States for at least two years, and in the state where the application was filed for at least a year. The new law also provided that “children of citizens of the United States that may be born … out of the limits of the United States shall be considered as natural born citizens.”
Story Continued Below
Men and women aliens were covered, as were their children younger than 21. However, citizenship could devolve only through the father and did “not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States.” The law also excluded indentured servants, free blacks and slaves, who were regarded as “property” and not “persons.”
When these requirements were met, an immigrant could file a naturalization petition with “any common law court of record” where he or she lived. The applicant would have to make “proof to the satisfaction of such court that he is a person of good character” and take an “oath or affirmation … to support the Constitution of the United States.”
In 1795, Congress amended the act to extend the minimum residence requirement to five years, which remains today.
The U.S. Constitution specified that only natural-born citizens, or those citizens born before the Constitution was adopted, were eligible to serve as president. The 12th Amendment extended that provision to vice presidential candidates as well. The nation’s eighth president, Martin Van Buren, was the first one to be born in the United States after the Constitution was enacted.
SOUCE: A CENTURY OF LAWMAKING FOR A NEW NATION: U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS AND DEBATES, 1774-1875; STATUTES AT LARGE, 1ST CONGRESS, 2ND SESSION, PAGES 103-104