Trump v. Barbara · ¶102

Do note this: The citizenship thesis of the Colored Conventions was thus not that some new status should be created and conferred on freed Blacks. It was instead that freed Blacks already had a rightful claim to citizenship be cause they had been born on American soil. After all, the Nation, from its founding, had “boldly proclaim[ed] that all men are born free and equal, and that consequently life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are inherent in every individual, vested inalienably by natural birthright.” No ideal was more inherently American. Now, “rest[ing their] cause on the republican standard of the revolutionary Fathers,” freed Blacks were “knock[ing] at the doors of the constitution and demand[ing] an entrance.” And “[i]f . . . asked what evidence [they] bring to sustain [their] qualifications for citizenship, [they would] offer them certificates of . . . BIRTH and…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.