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Rights, Privileges and Persons
by degsme

Note that the US Constitution extends its rights and privileges to The People or Persons, not to Citizens except in some very narrow circumstances (specifically womens and 18yo suffrage and the Presidency).

Now its true that the US Constitution allows for the creation of laws of Naturalizatoin - but until the late 1800s there effectively was no naturalization process beyond arriving and stating an intent to become a citizen. IOW residency was sufficient for receiving citizenship.

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