Ex parte Ah Yup
1870 Congressional Debates

¢ At the time of the amendment, in 1870, extending the naturalization laws to the African race, Mr. Summer made repeated and strenuous efforts to strike the word “white” from the naturalization laws, or to accomplish the same object by other language. It was opposed on the sole ground that the effect would be to authorize the admission of Chinese to citizenship. Every senator, who spoke upon the subject, assumed that they were then excluded by the term “white person,” and that the amendment would admit them . . . .