The Naturalization Act of 1870 is a federal statute approved on July 14, 1870, that did two things at once: it opened United States naturalization to people of African descent, and it built a criminal-penalty system aimed at naturalization fraud and urban election abuses. Its formal title is “An Act to amend the Naturalization Laws and to punish Crimes against the same, and for other Purposes,” and it is cited as 16 Stat. 254, Chapter 254 of the Statutes at Large.1GovInfo. Statutes at Large, Chapter 254 The full text is available through GovInfo, the official digital repository of the U.S. Government Publishing Office, and through several legal history archives listed at the end of this article.
What the Act Actually Did
Since the Naturalization Act of 1790, eligibility for citizenship had been limited to “free white persons,” and the Naturalization Law of 1802 kept that restriction in place.2Constitution Annotated. Naturalization Power Section 7 of the 1870 Act changed that for one group, providing that “the naturalization laws are hereby extended to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.”1GovInfo. Statutes at Large, Chapter 254 Foreign-born Black immigrants could now apply for and receive U.S. citizenship through the ordinary naturalization process.
The provision was a Reconstruction measure. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, had already guaranteed birthright citizenship for people born on American soil, overturning Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857).3Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. Birthright Citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, addressed the vote. Neither reached foreign-born people of African descent seeking naturalization. The 1870 Act closed that gap.
The rest of the statute — the bulk of it, in fact — was about punishing fraud in naturalization and policing elections in large cities, which is why the same law that expanded citizenship rights also reads like a criminal code.
Who Was Still Excluded
The Act extended naturalization to persons of African descent but left the phrase “free white persons” in the statute books. That was a deliberate choice. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts had proposed striking “white” from the naturalization laws entirely, but his amendment failed after Western Republicans refused to open citizenship to Chinese immigrants.4Time. Citizenship and Race in America The compromise that passed extended naturalization to Black immigrants and no one else new.
When the 1874 revision of the Revised Statutes accidentally dropped the word “white,” Congress passed a corrective act on February 18, 1875, restoring the language. Section 2169 was rewritten to read that naturalization applied to “aliens being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity, and to persons of African descent.”5National Archives. Immigration and Naturalization Law During the 1875 debate, members of Congress conceded that the purpose of keeping “white” was to exclude Asian immigrants generally.6Justia. United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
Courts enforced the exclusion quickly. In In re Ah Yup (1878), the Circuit Court for the District of California denied a Chinese petitioner’s application, holding that a person of the “Mongolian race” was not a “white person” and citing the 1870 congressional debates as proof that Congress had kept the word for the “sole purpose of excluding the Chinese.”7Law.Resource.Org. In re Ah Yup, 1 F. Cas. 2238Cornell Law Institute. Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 1789Justia. United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204
The Fraud and Election Provisions
The Act’s criminal sections built a tiered system of penalties for abuses of the naturalization process.
- Knowingly making a false oath or affirmation in a naturalization proceeding was punishable by one to five years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000.1GovInfo. Statutes at Large, Chapter 254
- Section 2 made it a felony to impersonate another person, use a fictitious or deceased person’s name, forge or counterfeit naturalization documents, or knowingly possess fraudulent papers. Penalties ran from one to five years at hard labor and fines of $300 to $1,000. Anyone who aided, counseled, or procured such acts faced the same penalties.10Teaching Legal History. Naturalization Act of 1870
- Section 3 made it a misdemeanor to use a fraudulently obtained certificate or falsely claim citizenship for a fraudulent purpose, with penalties of up to two years and up to $1,000.11Immigration History. Naturalization Act of 1870
Section 4 gave federal courts jurisdiction over all offenses under the Act, regardless of which court had handled the original naturalization. That mattered because naturalization at the time was administered by a patchwork of state and local courts, and Congress wanted uniform federal enforcement.1GovInfo. Statutes at Large, Chapter 254
Sections 5 and 6 turned to elections. In any city with more than 20,000 inhabitants, the federal circuit court had to appoint two citizens from opposing parties to supervise voter registration and the counting of votes in congressional elections. U.S. Marshals in those cities could appoint special deputies to keep order at polls and arrest people committing offenses or breaches of the peace. Obstructing or preventing the supervisors was a misdemeanor punishable by at least one year of imprisonment.1GovInfo. Statutes at Large, Chapter 254 These provisions responded to congressional concerns about fraudulent voting in Northern cities, particularly New York.12Florida State University Law Review. An Untapped Arsenal of Power
When the Racial Bar Finally Ended
The racial framework the 1870 Act helped codify lasted more than eighty years. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 went further than passive exclusion, directing that “no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship.” The Immigration Act of 1924 then used the racial naturalization bar as an immigration tool, denying entry to any person ineligible for citizenship.5National Archives. Immigration and Naturalization Law
The Magnuson Act of 1943 repealed the Chinese exclusion laws and made Chinese immigrants the first Asian group eligible for naturalization by adding “Chinese persons or persons of Chinese descent” to the statute.13USCIS. Edward Bing Kan: The First Chinese American Naturalized After Repeal The change was narrow: the annual Chinese immigration quota was set at roughly 105, and immigrants from other Asian countries remained ineligible.14Immigration History. 1943 Repeal of Chinese Exclusion
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, known as the McCarran-Walter Act, eliminated race as a basis for naturalization eligibility, striking the “free white persons” and “African descent” categories that had defined the system since 1790 and 1870. Congress passed it over President Truman’s veto. The 1952 Act opened naturalization to all races but kept a national-origins quota system and created the “Asia-Pacific Triangle” with small nominal quotas for Asian nations. Between 1952 and 1965, more than 40,000 first-generation Japanese immigrants became U.S. citizens under the new law.15Densho Encyclopedia. Immigration Act of 1952
Where to Read the Full Text
The complete text of the Naturalization Act of 1870 is available online through GovInfo, the official publication portal of the U.S. Government Publishing Office, at its Statutes at Large page for 16 Stat. 254.1GovInfo. Statutes at Large, Chapter 254 The statute is also reproduced at the University of Nebraska’s Teaching Legal History project, which hosts a digital copy of the enrolled act.10Teaching Legal History. Naturalization Act of 1870 The Library of Congress holds scanned images of the original Statutes at Large volume.
One boundary worth noting for researchers: the British Naturalization Act 1870, enacted on May 12 of the same year, is a completely separate law dealing with the legal status of aliens and British subjects under United Kingdom law.16UK Government. Historical Background Information on Nationality The two share a year and a name but nothing else.