Who qualified as a US citizen remained legally undefined as late as 1862

Evidence

Bates plainly restated the matter: “Who is a citizen? What constitutes a citizen of the United States?” He scoured court decisions and the “action of the different branches of our political government” and discovered no clear answer: “The subject is now as little understood in its details and elements, and the question as open to argument and to speculative criticism, as it was at the beginning of the government.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 723

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: attorneys general from Wirt to Taney had tried to settle the citizenship question but Bates found no settled answer — what did Taney’s earlier opinion actually argue?