It was left to Congress to set the laws to NATURALIZE. That is all. One main reason was because the various states each had different “naturalization” requirements to become a citizen.
One state might have had a 5 year residency, one a three year for example. A uniform rule needed to be set. Each state still has it’s own rules on when you are a official resident of that particular state and what laws you are under. As a NYer I am SUFFOCATED by state residency law if I want to be a snowbird. UGH.
Anyway, back in the early days our laws were first strict English common law of course, then as the years passed those laws were gradually changed a bit here and there to meet the needs of the young country. Read Binney.
I rely on the words of the learned people of that time period of American history to shape my understanding. NOT modern naturalization law, or how best to fit old English law (really all over the map) into our modern naturalization statutes.
[[It was left to Congress to set the laws to NATURALIZE. That is all.]]
I believe it was given them the responsibility to define things like NBC as well-
[[I rely on the words of the learned people of that time period of American history to shape my understanding. NOT modern naturalization law,]]
And that’s fine, the old law should be taken into consideration and the ‘original intent’ should be at least tried to be understood, but modern laws are what govern society now- the early founders had the wisdom to know that laws would necessarily need to be changed, tweaked and refined as the country grew and as new knowledge came to light