Law Dictionary of Legal Terminology

NATIVES

NATIVES. All persons born within the jurisdiction of the United States, are considered as natives.

2. Natives will be classed into those born before the declaration of our independence, and those born since.

3. - 1. All persons, without regard to the place of their birth, who were born before the declaration of independence, who were in the country at the time it was made, and who yielded a deliberate assent to it, either express or implied, as by remaining in the country, are considered as natives. Those persons who were born within the colonies, and before the declaration of independence, removed into another part of the British dominions, and did not return prior to the peace, would not probably be considered natives, but aliens.

4. - 2. Persons born within the United States, since the Revolution, may be classed into those who are citizens, and those who are not.

5. - 1st. Natives who are citizens are the children of citizens, and of aliens who at the time of their birth were residing within the United States.

6 The act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, approved April 14, 1802, §4, provides that the children of persons who now are, or have been citizens of the United States, shall, though born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, be considered as citizens of the United States" But, the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never resided in the United States.

7. - 2d. Natives who are not citizens are, first, the children of ambassadors, or other foreign ministers, who, although born here, are subjects or citizens of the government of their respective fathers. Secondly, Indians, in general, are not citizens. Thirdly, negroes, or descendants of the African race, in general, have no power to vote, and are not eligible to office.

8. Native male citizens, who have not lost their political rights, after attaining the age required by law, may vote for all kinds of officers, and be elected to any office for which they are legally qualified.

9. The constitution of the United States declares that no person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president or vice-president of the United States. Vide, generally, 2 Cranch, 280; 4 Cranch, 209; 1 Dal. 53; 20 John. 213; 2 Mass. 236, 244, note; 2 Pick. 394, n.; 2 Kent, 35.