ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES; WITH A PRELIMINARY REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE COLONIES AND STATES, BEFORE THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. BY JOSEPH STORY, LL. D., DANE PROFESSOR OF LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. IN THREE VOLUMES. "Magistratibus igitur opus est; sine quorum prudentiâ ac diligentia esse civitas non potest; · CicaRD DE LEG. lib. 3. cap. 2. "Government is a contrivance of Human wisdom to provide for human wants." THE NEW YORK ASTOR, LENOX AND Entered according to the act of Congress in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, by JOSEPH STORY, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. COMMENTARIES. CHAPTER XVI. POWER OVER NATURALIZATION AND BANKRUPTCY. § 1097. THE next clause is, that congress "shall have "power to establish an uniform rule of naturalization, "and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies "throughout the United States." §1098. The propriety of confiding the power to establish an uniform rule of naturalization to the national government seems not to have occasioned any doubt or controversy in the convention. For aught that appears on the journals, it was conceded without objection. Under the confederation, the states possessed the sole authority to exercise the power; and the dissimilarity of the system in different states was generally admitted, as a prominent defect, and laid the foundation of many delicate and intricate questions. As the free inhabitants of each state were entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in all the other states, it followed, that a single state possessed the power of forcing into every other state, with the 1 Journ. of Convention, 220, 257. — One of the grievances stated in the Declaration of Independence was, that the king had endeavoured to prevent the population of the states by obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners. |