perfectly and entirely within the power of congress, as, in the nature
of things, such a subject can be--for naturalization is a legal process;
and legal records, prescribed by congress, may be, and actually are,
preserved of all the persons naturalized or made "free" by their laws.

If we adopt that meaning of the word "free," which is consistent with
freedom--that meaning which is consistent with natural right--the
meaning given to it by the Articles of Confederation, by the then
existing state constitutions, by the colonial charters, and by the
English law ever since our ancestors enjoyed the name of freemen, all
these difficulties, inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities,
that must otherwise arise, vanish. The word "free" then describes the
native and naturalized citizens of the United States, and the words "all
other persons" describe resident aliens, "Indians not taxed," and
possibly some others. The representation is then placed upon the best,
most just, and most rational basis that the words used can be made to
describe. The representation also becomes equal and uniform throughout
the country. The principle of distinction between the two bases, becomes
also a stable, rational and intelligible one--one too necessarily
growing out of the exercise of one of the powers granted to
congress;--one, too, whose operation could have been foreseen and judged
of by the people who adopted the constitution--instead of one
fluctuating with the ever changing and arbitrary legislation of the
various states, whose mode and motives of action could not have been
anticipated. Adopt this definition of the word "free," and the same
legislature, (that is, the national one,) that is required by the
constitution to apportion the representation according to certain
principles, becomes invested--as it evidently ought to be, and as it
necessarily must be, to be efficient--with the power of determining, by
their own (naturalization) laws, who are the persons composing the
different bases on which its apportionment is to be made; instead of
being, as they otherwise would be, obliged to seek for these persons
through all the statute books of all the different states of the union,
and through all the evidences of private property, under which one of
these classes might be held. Adopt this definition of the word "free,"
and the United States government becomes, so far at least as its popular
representation--which is its most important fea