"The first amendment is to section one, declaring that "all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein the teside." I do not propose to say anything on that subject except that the question of citizenship has been so fully discussed in this body as not to need any further elucidation, in my opinion. This amendment which I have offered is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the government of the United States, but will include every other class of person. I am not yet prepared to pass a sweeping act of naturalization by which all the Indian savages, wild or tame, belonging to a tribal relation, are to become my fellow-citizens and go to the polls and vote with me."
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Lawyers from the United StatesMembers of the United States SenateWhig Party (United States) politiciansPeople from VermontRepublican Party (United States) politicians
Original Language: English
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30 May 1866 during 1st session of 39th congress per page 2890 of "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacob_M._Howard
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Jacob M. Howard
Jacob Merritt Howard (July 10, 1805 – April 2, 1871) was an American attorney and politician. He was most notable for his service as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan, and his political career spanned the American Civil War. He wrote the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was passed into law on 9 July 1868
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