Page:A legal review of the case of Dred Scott, as decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.djvu/15

 thing. They both describe the political body who, according to our republican institutions, form the sovereignty, and who hold the power and conduct the government through their representatives. They are what we familiarly call the 'sovereign people,' and every citizen is one of this people, and a constituent member of this sovereignty. The question before us is, whether the class of persons described in the plea in abatement compose a portion of this people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty?" p. 404.

This question is discussed principally in the opinions of the Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Curtis, and in order to understand it correctly, we must give an outline of their views. Both start with the admission, that, before the adoption of the federal Constitution, the power of naturalization was in the several States; and both assert, what is universally admitted, that the grant to congress of power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, throughout the United States, applies only to aliens, that is, persons born out of the allegiance of the United States or of any State; and necessarily takes away from the States the right to make such persons citizens of the United States in the sense of the Constitution. But here their lines of argument diverge.

The Chief Justice is of opinion that a State may still confer the character and all the rights of a citizen "upon an alien, or any one it thinks proper, or upon any class or description of persons"; but that, as a State has no power of legislation beyond its own limits, such rights must be restricted to the State which gives them, and can confer no corresponding rights as a citizen of the United States; and that, as congress cannot confer these privileges except upon aliens, no class of persons, not aliens, can in any way be admitted to the rights of citizens of the United States, who were not citizens when the Constitution was adopted; that negroes at that time formed no part of the "people" of the several States, but were an inferior class of beings, possessing no rights entitled to protection.

Mr. Justice Curtis maintains, on the other hand, that the States have now no power to naturalize aliens, even to the limited extent of making them citizens of the State—the grant to congress comprehending the whole subject; but that the States retain full power to confer citizenship on any persons born on their soil, to the full extent of making them citizens of the United States; though he denies their 2