Nationality

is determined in the United States by the Federal law and not by the State. Members of the nation are, of course, also members of the State in which they reside. The Constitution established no rules regarding the acquisition or lo of American nationality, which is therefore governed by the subsidiary or common law of the land. All persons born within the United States are considered to have acquired nationality. The Naturalization Act of 1790 endowed children born of American parents beyond the sea with American nationality. The act of 1855 restricted this to the children of citizen fathers. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared ‘all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power ” to be citizens of the United States, The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) defines them as ‘‘all persons born. or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”