A property qualification for the members of the House of Representatives was a thing of far less consequence than the fact of citizenship. Indeed, there might well be a doubt, whether a requisition of this kind would not be in some degree inconsistent with the character that had already been impressed upon the government, by the compromise which had settled the nature of the representation in the popular branch. It was to be a representation of the people of the States; and as soon as it was determined that the right of suffrage in each State should be just as broad as the legislative authority of the State might see fit to make it, the basis of the representation became a democracy, without any restrictions save those which the people of each State might impose upon it for themselves. If then the Constitution were to refrain from imposing on the electors a property qualification, for the very purpose of including all to whom the States might concede the right of voting within their respective limits, thus excluding the idea of a special representation of property, it was certainly not necessary to require the possession of property by the representatives, or to clothe the national legislature with power to establish such a qualification. The clause reported by the committee of detail for this purpose was accordingly left out of the Constitution.[136] But with respect to citizenship, as a requisite for the office of a representative or a senator, very different considerations applied. With whatever degree of safety the States might be permitted to determine who should vote for a representative in the national legislature, it was necessary that the Constitution itself should meet and decide the grave questions, whether persons of foreign birth should be eligible at all, and if so, at what period after they had acquired the general rights of citizens. It seems highly probable, from the known jealousies and fears that were entertained of foreign influence, that the eligibility to office would have been strictly confined to natives, but for a circumstance to which allusion has already been made. The presence of large numbers of persons of foreign birth, who had adopted, and been adopted by, some one of the States, who stood on a footing of equality with the native inhabitants, and some of whom had served the country of their adoption with great distinction and unsuspected fidelity, was the insuperable obstacle to such a provision. The objection arising from the impolicy of discouraging future immigration had its weight; but it had not the decisive influence which was conceded to the position of those foreigners already in the country and already enjoying the rights of citizenship under the laws and constitutions of the several States. That men should be perpetually ineligible to office under a constitution which they had assisted in making, could not be said to be demanded by the people of America.