It seems that after the US Civil War, southerners who supported the Confederacy were given the ability to become loyal US Citizens again.
Did the Confederacy grant Confederate/CSA citizenship on any person who had never been a US Citizen? E.g., say Hans Schmidt immigrated to the US from Germany in 1855 and settled in Virginia Beach, but hadn’t become a US Citizen yet by the time the war breaks out. He eventually decides that he’d like to be a citizen of the country he is living in and asks for naturalization in the Confederate States of America.
If so, after the war ended, could such naturalized Confederates become US Citizens automatically, by simple oath, or otherwise by a more abbreviated process than would otherwise have been available, or might they be recognized as such automatically if they had not actually engaged in hostilities?
It does seem to be the case that when an area is conquered, the citizens of that area often become citizens of the conquering nation. Might that principle apply?
I don’t think there were those kind of citizenship requirements and processes at the time, as there were not yet any restrictions on immigration. If you lived in Virginia, you were a citizen of Virginia unless you wanted to be otherwise.
During the Civil War itself, immigration into the Confederacy was IIRC minuscule due to the U.S. Navy blockade, although the land borders were quite porous, even in theaters of war. After the war, the 14th Amendment clarified the concept of national citizenship for anyone “born or naturalized in [any of] the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof…”
Damn the edit window. Now I look foolish in the previous message.
The OP is covered, I think, by the Fourteenth Amendment: 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. Since, in the opinion of the United States the CSA had continued to be States, just in rebellion, any person naturalized in Virginia during the war would be a U.S. citizen.
Nonsense. The United States Constitution granted Congress the authority to make uniform rules of naturalization, and Congress did so, beginning in 1790. There were no restrictions on moving to the United States, but you didn’t become a citizen just by dropping anchor and wading ashore.
The Confederate Constitution also granted power over naturalization to its Congress. The question is, did Congress ever exercise that power?
As far as I can tell from a quick search of the Confederate statutes at large, Congress did so only with respect to immigrants serving in the Confederate armed forces, in 1861.
Assuming that at least some persons took that route to Confederate citizenship, this would have had no impact on their status as Americans after the war. If they wanted to become American citizens, they would have had to repeat the process with respect to American naturalization.
If a Canadian comes down to the US and makes contact with a breakaway group up in them there West Virginia hills and they attempt to perform a “naturalization” on him as a Citizen of the Free, Armed and Moonshining Citizens of the Republic of Appalachia movement, that wouldn’t be a “naturalization” under the uniform rules of naturalization that Congress was empowered to set and thus wouldn’t be recognized as being “naturalized” within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.
But, as in my OP, we can suppose an immigrant that arrived and settled in the South before the war but did not become a US citizen during the time leading up to the war. Obviously, it’s implied in the OP that the citizen is what the Confederacy would consider White.
Then why did the states that seceded have to be re-admitted into the Union?
This has always perplexed me. The states that seceded have their dates of origin as the dates that Congress declared that territory a state. However, those states were governed by the federal government after the Civil War until they were “re-admitted.” Since they had to be re-admitted, it is logical to assume that in the interim they lost their statehoods. It appears they were in quantum states.
They didn’t. They had to be once again entitled to representation in Congress. Representation in Congress requires a loyal state government capable of organizing and administering elections. No such government existed in the Confederate states between 1861 and 1868.
The phrase I’ve heard is that the seceded states were “in an impaired relationship” with the rest of the republic. They were not able to go from breakaway polities to fully-privileged U.S. states overnight. Reconstruction, ratification of the post-Civil War amendments, adoption through state law of black suffrage, reappointment by the President of local Federal officials such as U.S. attorneys, postmasters, revenue and customs agents, etc., and the holding of new elections were all necessary before a state could resume its rightful place in the Union.
They were also unable to choose their own state government representatives. During reconstruction, South Carolina had a black governor. In short, they had none of the rights and powers given to them in the Constitution, and were, basically, treated as the US would treat any conquered nation. For all intents and purposes, they lost their statehoods and had to be readmitted.
Editing to note that Elendil’s Heir did say they could not hold elections during that period.
Congress basically passed a law taking away the right of the Supreme Court to rule on the Constitutionality of the matter. It was touched on a little bit in Texas v White, though.
The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;–to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;–to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;–to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;–to controversies between two or more states;–between a state and citizens of another state;–between citizens of different states;–between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects.
In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
