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Article: Writing Citizenship into the Constitution
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- American Eras
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 1997 Gale Research Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Writing Citizenship into the Constitution
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The attempt to establish the meaning of American citizenship was central to constitutional development during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Previous generations had not done much to clarify the concept. Neither judicial decisions nor legal commentators offered
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a clear and satisfactory definition of the phrase citizen of the United States,
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Attorney General Edward Bates observed in the middle of the war. He sighed that
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eighty years of practical enjoyment of citizenship, under the Constitution, have not sufficed to teach us either the exact meaning of the word or the constituent ...
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