No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have
attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine
Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall
not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State
for which he shall be chosen. [U.S. Constitution,
Article I, section 3, clause 3]
Delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention supported
establishing membership limitations for House and Senate
members. Influenced by British and state precedents, they
set age, citizenship, and inhabitancy qualifications for
senators but voted against proposed religion and property
requirements.
Age:
The constitutional framers debated the minimum age for
representatives before they considered the same
qualification for senators. Although Delegate James Wilson
stated that “there was no more reason for
incapacitating youth than age, where the requisite
qualifications were found,” other delegates were in
favor of age restrictions. They were familiar with
England’s law requiring members of Parliament to be 21
or older, and they lived in states which either barred
legislators under the ages of 21 or 25 from the upper
chambers.
As introduced in May 1787, James Madison’s Virginia
Plan left Senate age restrictions to the delegates to
decide, only stating that members of the second branch must
“be of the age of ____ at least.” Without
debating the subject further, delegates voted in favor of
filling the blank with 30, and passed the clause unanimously
on June 25, three days after designating 25 as the minimum
age for representatives. In The Federalist, No. 62
, Madison justified the higher age requirement for senators.
By its deliberative nature, the “senatorial
trust,” called for a “greater extent of
information and stability of character,” than would be
needed in the more democratic House of Representatives.
Citizenship:
Under English law, no person “born out of the kingdoms
of England, Scotland, or Ireland” could be a member of
either house of Parliament. While some delegates may have
admired the “strictness” of this policy, no
framers advocated a blanket ban on foreign-born legislators.
Instead, they debated the length of time members of Congress
should be citizens before taking office. The states’
residency qualifications offered moderate guidelines in this
regard. New Hampshire’s state senators needed to be
residents for at least seven years prior to election. In
other states, upper house members fulfilled a five, three,
or one-year requirement, while state representatives
completed a residency period of one to three years.
The Virginia Plan made no mention of citizenship when Edmund
Randolph introduced it to the convention in May. Two months
later, the Committee of Detail reported a draft of the
Constitution. Article V, section 3 included a four-year
citizenship requirement for senators. On August 9,
Gouverneur Morris moved to replace the four-year clause with
a 14-year minimum. Later that day, delegates voted against
citizenship requirements of 14, 13, and 10 years before
passing the nine-year provision, making the Senate
requirement two years longer than that for the House of
Representatives.
At the convention, delegates viewed the nine-year citizenship
qualification as a compromise “between a total
exclusion of adopted citizens” and an
“indiscriminate and hasty admission of them.”
While they were concerned that the Senate, especially, might
be subject to foreign influence, they did not wish to close
the institution to naturalized citizens of merit. Two
foreign-born framers expressed these opposing
considerations. According to Pierce Butler, recent arrivals
were dangerously attached to their countries of origin, a
particular concern for senators whose role would include
review of foreign treaties. From his own experience, he
believed that naturalized citizens would need sufficient
time to learn and appreciate American laws and customs
before they could serve in government. For James Wilson,
however, lengthy citizenship requirements “discouraged
and mortified” everyone they excluded. He agreed with
Benjamin Franklin that a strict policy would hinder positive
immigration and offend those Europeans who had supported the
Revolutionary War. On August 13, Wilson moved to reduce the
Senate qualification by two years. Delegates rejected his
motion, and confirmed the nine-year requirement by an 8 to 3
vote.
Inhabitancy:
Although England repealed Parliament’s residency law
in 1774, no delegates spoke against a residency requirement
for members of Congress. The qualification first came under
consideration on August 6 when the Committee of Detail
reported its draft of the Constitution. Article 5, section 3
stated, “Every member of the Senate shall be . . . at
the time of his election, a resident of the state from which
he shall be chosen.”
On August 8, Roger Sherman moved to strike the word
“resident” from the House version of the clause,
and insert in its place “inhabitant,” a term he
considered to be “less liable to
misconstruction.” Madison seconded the motion, noting
that “resident” might exclude people
occasionally absent on public or private business. Delegates
agreed to the term, “inhabitant,” and voted
against adding a time period to the requirement. The
following day, they amended the Senate qualification to
include the word, “inhabitant,” prior to passing
the clause by unanimous consent.
