Ch. 5.4. Primary Source: The U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790
An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, March 26, 1790.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled: That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof on application to any common law Court of record in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such Court that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law to support the Constitution of the United States, which Oath or Affirmation such Court shall administer, and the Clerk of such Court shall record such Application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a Citizen of the United States.
And the children of such person so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States; provided also, that no person heretofore proscribed by any States, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid, except by an Act of the Legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed.
This law was subsequently revised by new Naturalization Acts of 1795, 1798, and 1802. All three continued to limit naturalization to “free white persons,” a limitation not lifted until 1870. From 1795 onwards new citizens were required to “renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty whatever.”
The laws of 1795 and 1798 extended the required period of residency to five and then to fourteen years. The 1798 extension to fourteen years was motivated in part by the Federalist Party’s attempt to limit immigration, because new immigrants tended to be laborers or settlers who favored the Jeffersonian Republicans. After the latter party’s electoral victory in 1800, the law of 1802 returned to the earlier residency requirement of five years.
Source, for the law of 1790, see: The Library of Congress, Statutes at Large, First Congress, Session II, pp. 103-04. (an image from this publication).