ould afterward be made free in any State; and to put it in the power
of a single State to make him a citizen of the United States, and endue
him with the full rights of citizenship in every other State without
their consent? Does the Constitution of the United States act upon him
whenever he shall be made free under the laws of a State, and raised
there to the rank of a citizen, and immediately clothe him with all the
privileges of a citizen in every other State, and in its own courts?

The court think the affirmative of these propositions cannot be
maintained. And if it cannot, the plaintiff in error could not be a
citizen of the State of Missouri, within the meaning of the Constitution
of the United States, and, consequently, was not entitled to sue in its
courts.

It is true, every person, and every class and description of persons,
who were at the time of the adoption of the Constitution recognized as
citizens in the several States, became also citizens of this new
political body; but none other; it was formed by them, and for them and
their posterity, but for no one else. And the personal rights and
privileges guaranteed to citizens of this new sovereignty were intended
to embrace those only who were then members of the several State
communities, or who should afterward by birthright or otherwise become
members, according to the provisions of the Constitution and the
principles on which it was founded. It was the union of those who were
at that time members of distinct and separate political communities into
one political family, whose power, for certain specified purposes, was
to extend over the whole territory of the United States. And it gave to
each citizen rights and privileges outside of his State which he did not
before possess, and placed him in every other State upon a perfect
equality with its own citizens as to rights of person and rights of
property; it made him a citizen of the United States.

It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine who were citizens of the
several States when the Constitution was adopted. And in order to do
this, we must recur to the governments and institutions of the thirteen
colonies, when they separated from Great Britain and formed new
sovereignities, and took their places in the family of independent
nations. We must inquire who, at that time, were recognized as the
people or citizens of a State, whose rights and liberties had been
outraged by the English Government; and