From John Jay to Timothy Pickering, 13 May 1798
To Timothy Pickering
Albany 13 May 1798
Dr. Sir
It is said that the Naturalization Act is to be revised and amended.1 Permit me to suggest an idea which I have for many years deemed important. We doubtless may grant to a Foreigner just such a portion of our Rights & Priviledges, as we may think proper. In my opinion it would be wiser to declare explicitly, that the Right & Priviledge of being elected or appointed to, or of holding and exercising any office or place of Trust or power, under the United States, or under any of them, shall not hereafter be granted to any Foreigner— But that the President of the U. S. with the consent of the Senate, be nevertheless at Liberty to appoint a Foreigner to a military office— I am Dear Sir Your most obt. Servt.
John Jay
The Honble Timothy Pickering Esqr
1. The original Naturalization Act of the United States, adopted on 26 Mar. 1790 ( , 1: 103), limited naturalization to free white persons of good character and stated that children of U.S. citizens born abroad would be considered as “natural born citizens,” except for those whose “fathers had never been resident in the United States”. It required a two-year residence in the United States and one year in the state of residence before applying for citizenship. That act was replaced by the Naturalization Act of 1795 ( , 1: 414), which extended the residence requirement to five years in the United States.
On 2 May 1798 Harrison Gray Otis of Massachusetts had proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives denying future naturalized citizens the right to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit, and Christopher G. Champlin (1768–1840) of Rhode Island had objected that this might bar service of foreigners in the army and navy and such a limitation should only apply to civil offices. James Goodhue Harper of North Carolina advocated limiting citizenship in future exclusively to those born in the country. Neither measure was adopted (See “John Jay and the Constitutional Convention of 1787”, and note 11, , 4: 465, 466–67n11; and “John Jay and the Response to the XYZ Affair in New York,” below.
, 30: 30n1; , 8: 1568–69). The Naturalization Act adopted on 18 June 1798 ( , 1: 566–69), one of the Alien and Sedition Acts enacted at that time, extended the residence requirement for citizenship to fourteen years. The Naturalization Act of 1802, adopted 14 Apr. 1802 ( , 2: 153), returned the residence requirement to five years. For JJ’s fear of foreign influence and longtime opposition to office holding by the foreign born, see the editorial notes