The Founders just didn’t get it. The first citizenship law said that only “free white persons of good character” could become Americans.
The Founding Fathers/whoever wrote that law was racist. More news at 9.
And it wasn’t just race. One of the founders, John Jay, said America was strong because Americans were “a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs.”
John Jay should've known better. Maryland was founded as a colony for Catholics, Pennsylvania tolerated everyone, New England started off as Puritan colonies, New York was originally Dutch and the southern states had slavery. The colonies didn't start working together until the French and Indian War.