Save Act would require all Americans prove citizenship when registering to vote

> Passing by questions once earnestly controverted, but finally put at rest by the fourteenth amendment of the constitution, it is beyond doubt that, before the enactment of the civil rights act of 1866 or the adoption of the constitutional amendment, all white persons, at least, born within the sovereignty of the United States, whether children of citizens or of foreigners, excepting only children of ambassadors or public ministers of a foreign government, were native-born citizens of the United States.

Thus, even without the 14th Amendment at least some of those 250,000 to 400,000 children born each year in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants - the white ones - would still be US citizens, barring a law otherwise. And there has been no law otherwise, because of the 14th.

If you want to say the loophole is that non-white US-born children of foreign citizens mistakenly got a right that was only meant to apply to former slaves, then go ahead and say that.

But we can read the discussion in Congress at the time and see they were well aware that it applied to more than ex-slaves. From https://web.archive.org/web/20210114215253/https://memory.lo... and the following page we see Mr. Cowan ask for clarification about the text, as it applies to foreigners:

> Is the child of the Chinese immigrant in California a citizen? Is the child of a Gypsy born in Pennsylvania a citizen? If so, what rights have they? ... is it proposed that the people of California are to remain quiescent while they are overrun by a flood of immigration of the Mongol race? Are they to be immigrated out of house and home by Chinese? I should think not.

Mr. Conness [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Conness] replies:

> The proposition before us, I will say, Mr. President, relates simply in that respect to the children begotten of Chinese parents in California, and it is proposed to declare that they shall be citizens. We have declared that by law; now it is proposed to incorporate the same provision in the fundamental instrument of the nation. I am in favor of doing so. I voted for the proposition to declare that the children of all parentage whatever, born in California, should be regarded and treated as citizens of the United States, entitled to equal civil rights with other citizens of the United States.

Oh man, he goes on to point out how all the recent talk about Gypsies, when they are so few in number, cannot be but to cause political agitation, then referring to actions of "our "southern brethren", who I will not say invaded California" were there as "road agents" (but actually highway robbers), and California hanged them as California did not recognize the commission of Jefferson Davis within their borders.

In any case, the evidence is quite clear that this "loophole" was fully discussed and understood as a goal of the amendment.

That is why Mr. Conness, an abolitionist and advocate for Chinese immigration, advocated for its passage.

Nope. This "loophole" nonsense is naught but political agitation.