Senator
Jacob Howard Author of the 14th Amendment
Amendment
XIV
Section
1.
“All
persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state
wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws.”
The
very author of the citizenship clause, Sen. Jacob Howard of Michigan, expressly
said: "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 persons.
Fortunately,
we have the highest possible authority on record to answer this question of how
the term "jurisdiction" was to be interpreted and applied, the author
of the citizenship clause, Sen. Jacob M. Howard (MI) to tell us exactly what it
means and its intended scope as he introduced it to the United States Senate in
1866:
Mr.
HOWARD: I now move to take up House joint resolution No. 127.
The
motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the
consideration of the joint resolution (H.R. No. 127) proposing an amendment to
the Constitution of the United States.
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 they reside. I do not propose to say
anything on that subject except that the question of citizenship has been 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
persons. It settles the great question of citizenship and removes all
doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States. This has
long been a great desideratum in the jurisprudence and legislation of this
country.[1]
It
is clear the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment had no intention of freely
giving away American citizenship to just anyone simply because they may have
been born on American soil, something our courts have wrongfully assumed. But
what exactly did "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" mean to the
framers of the Fourteenth Amendment? Again, we are fortunate to have on record
the highest authority to tell us, Sen. Lyman Trumbull, Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, author of the Thirteenth Amendment, and the one who
inserted the phrase:
[T]he
provision is, that 'all persons born in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.' That means 'subject to the complete
jurisdiction thereof.' What do we mean by 'complete jurisdiction
thereof?' Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.
For
the full text on Congressional Intent:
Photo provided by Kate Kelley Howe
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