The very improper power would still be retained by each State,
of naturalizing aliens in every other State. In one State, residence for
a short term confirms all the rights of citizenship: in another,
qualifications of greater importance are required. An alien, therefore,
legally incapacitated for certain rights in the latter, may, by previous
residence only in the former, elude his incapacity; and thus the law of
one State be preposterously rendered paramount to the law of another,
within the jurisdiction of the other. We owe it to mere casualty, that
very serious embarrassments on this subject have been hitherto escaped.
By the laws of several States, certain descriptions of aliens, who had
rendered themselves obnoxious, were laid under interdicts inconsistent
not only with the rights of citizenship but with the privilege of
residence. What would have been the consequence, if such persons, by
residence or otherwise, had acquired the character of citizens under the
laws of another State, and then asserted their rights as such, both to
residence and citizenship, within the State proscribing them? Whatever
the legal consequences might have been, other consequences would
probably have resulted, of too serious a nature not to be provided
against.
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