the court, therefore, is, whether the descendants of such slaves, when
they shall be emancipated, or who are born of parents who had become
free before their birth, are citizens of a State, in the sense in which
the word citizen is used in the Constitution of the United States. And
this being the only matter in dispute on the pleadings, the court must
be understood as speaking in this opinion of that class only, that is,
of those persons who are the descendants of Africans who were imported
into this country, and sold as slaves.

The situation of this population was altogether unlike that of the
Indian race. The latter, it is true, formed no part of the colonial
communities, and never amalgamated with them in social connections or in
government. But although they were uncivilized, they were yet a free and
independent people, associated together in nations or tribes, and
governed by their own laws. Many of these political communities were
situated in territories to which the white race claimed the ultimate
right of dominion. But that claim was acknowledged to be subject to the
right of the Indians to occupy it as long as they thought proper, and
neither the English nor colonial Governments claimed or exercised any
dominion over the tribe or nation by whom it was occupied, nor claimed
the right to the possession of the territory, until the tribe or nation
consented to cede it. These Indian Governments were regarded and
treated as foreign Governments, as much so as if an ocean had separated
the red man from the white; and their freedom has constantly been
acknowledged, from the time of the first emigration to the English
colonies to the present day, by the different Governments which
succeeded each other. Treaties have been negotiated with them, and their
alliance sought for in war; and the people who compose these Indian
political communities have always been treated as foreigners not living
under our Government. It is true that the course of events has brought
the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States under
subjection to the white race; and it has been found necessary, for their
sake as well as our own, to regard them as in a state of pupilage, and
to legislate to a certain extent over them and the territory they
occupy. But they may, without doubt, like the subjects of any other
foreign Government, be naturalized by the authority of Congress, and
become citizens of a State, and of the United States; and