shall be actually made, it is to be met by applying to it those rules of law and those principles of
good faith which will be sufficient to decide it, and not, in my judgment, by denying that all the
free native-bom inhabitants of a State, who are its citizens under its constitution and laws, are
also citizens of the United States.

It has sometimes been urged that colored persons are shown not to be citizens of the
United States, by the fact that the naturalization laws apply only to white persons. But whether a
person bom in the United States be or be not a citizen, cannot depend on laws which refer only to
aliens, and do not affect the status of persons born in the United States. The utmost effect which
can be attributed to them is, to show that Congress has not deemed it expedient generally to apply
the rule to colored aliens. That they might do so, if thought fit, is clear. The Constitution has not
excluded them. And since that has conferred the power on Congress to naturalize colored aliens,
it certainly shows that color is not a necessary qualification for citizenship under the Constitution
of the United States. It may be added, that the power to make colored persons citizens of the
United States, under the Constitution, has been actually exercised in repeated and important
instances. See the Treaties with the Choctaws, of Sept. 27, 1830, art. 14; with the Cherokees, of
May 23, 1836, art. 12; Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, Feb. 2, 1848, art. 8.

[After reviewing and dismissing a number of arguments relating to Acts of Congress
Curds stated:] in the apprehension of their framers, color was not a necessary qualification of
citizenship. It would be strange, if laws were found on our statue book to that effect, when by
solemn treaties, large bodies of Mexican and North American Indians, as well as free colored
inhabitants of Louisiana, have been admitted to citizenship of the United States.

In the legislative debates which preceded the admission of the State of Missouri into the
Union, this question was agitated. Its result is found in the resolution of Congress, of March 5,
1821, for the admission of that State into the Union. The Constitution of Missouri, under which
that State applied for admission into the Union, provided, that it should be the duty of the
Legislature "to pass laws to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in
the State, under any pretext whatever." One ground of objection to the admission of the State
under this Constitution was, that it would require the Legislature to exclude free persons of color,
who would be entitled, under the 2d section of the 4th article of the Constitution, not only to
come within the State, but to enjoy there the privileges and immunities of citizens. The
resolutions of Congress admitting the State was upon the fundamental condition, "that the
Constitution of Missouri shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no
law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States of this
Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which
such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States." It is true, that neither this
legislative declaration, nor anything in the Constitution or laws of Missouri, could confer or take
away any privilege or immunity granted by the Constitution. But it is also true, that it expresses
the then conviction of the legislative power of the United States, that free negroes, as citizens of
some of the States, might be entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens in all the States.

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