In 1820 it authorized
the District of Columbia to elect white city officials, and it
consistently admitted new states to the Union whose constitutions
severely limited the rights of freedmen. The office of the Attorney
General usually took the position that the Constitution did not grant
citizenship to Negroes, and Congress itself had limited naturalization
to white aliens in 1790. This point of view was later justified by
the Dred Scott decision. With only a few exceptions, the Secretary of
State refused to grant passports to those wishing to travel abroad,
although it did provide a letter of identification stating that the
carrier was a resident of the United States. Finally, Massachusetts
granted its own passports to its colored citizens, complaining that
they had been virtually denationalized.
Also, many states in the Northwest passed laws prohibiting or
limiting the migration of Afro-Americans into their territory. An
Illinois law said that anyone who entered the state illegally could be
whipped and sold at auction. Many states denied blacks the ballot,
prohibited their serving on a jury and legally segregated
transportation, restaurants, hotels, theaters, churches, and even
cemeteries.
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