Sec.1.  The next clause grants to congress the power “to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.”  We have already noticed some of the disqualifications of aliens. (Chap.  VI, Sec.5.) By the common law of England and this country, aliens were not only politically disqualified, but they could not in their own name lawfully hold and sell real estate.  To admit aliens to all the rights and privileges of citizens immediately on their arrival in this country, and before they shall have acquired a knowledge of our government and laws, and of the duties of citizens, would be expedient.  Educated under monarchical governments, many of them, it is to be presumed, have little respect for our republican institutions, or at most but an imperfect knowledge of them.

Sec.2.  But to deny foreigners the rights of citizens after they shall have acquired a fixed residence here, and a knowledge of their civil and political duties, would be illiberal and unjust.  Provision has therefore been made for removing their disqualifications, or for naturalizing them; that is, for investing them with the rights and privileges of natural born citizens.  But if different rules were established by the different states, a person, having become naturalized in one state, would, on removing into another state, be deprived of the rights of citizenship, until he should have been naturalized by the laws of such state.  Besides, by the constitution, a person, on becoming a citizen of any state, is a citizen of the United States, and entitled to the privileges of a citizen in any other state. (Art.  IV., Sec.2.) As, therefore, there should be one uniform rule, the power of naturalization is properly given to congress.

Sec.3.  An alien, to become a citizen, must declare on oath before a state court or a circuit court of the United States, or before a clerk of either of said courts, after having resided three years in the United States, that it is his intention to become a citizen, and to renounce his allegiance to all foreign governments, and particularly that under which he formerly lived, and that he will support the constitution of the United States.  Then after two years, the court, if satisfied that he has resided five years in the United States, and one year in the state in which the court is held, and that during that time he has behaved as a man of good moral character, and is attached to the principles of the constitution, may admit him as a citizen.

Sec.4.  An alien minor who has resided in the United States at least three years before he was twenty-one years of age, may, at any time after that age and five years’ residence in the United States, be admitted as a citizen, without having previously declared his intention to become a citizen.  Also the minor children of a naturalized citizen, if dwelling in the United States at the time of his naturalization, become citizens.