Interpreting Citizenship: 14th Amendment Perspectives

According to the 14th Amendment,
All peoples born or naturalized in the United States, and subjects to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due protection process of law; nor deny to any person within it jurisdiction the protection of the laws.

However, individuals such as Henry Comstock and Andrew Carnegie believed that individuals who had power should only care for the poor only when the rich felt like it was appropriate to step in and “save” the day. On the other hand, individuals

such as Pun Chi, the Knights of Labor and Jane Addams fought for the rights of immigrants, laborers, and women, respectively. With their help throughout history, these groups of voiceless people fought for well-deserved rights and claimed the famous phrase “We The People.”
Within the United States, in 1859, individuals from the East began to flock to the West coast, which was described as “God’s Country,” because Gold was discovered in California, starting the Gold Rush. This event lead a large group of poor Chinese immigrants to start working in the local mines in the hopes of living out the dream of having a fresh start living in a new country. However, once the Chinese immigrants had started working in the mines, they were not treated as equals. In 1870, Pun Chi, who had worked in the local mines, designed a petition that described how the Chinese immigrants were treated under the power of Henry Comstock. Pun Chi described within his petition, he described the anger within the mine when he noticed the mistreated from Chinese co-workers, who had felt personalized victimized while working in mines and if a co-worker would be mistreated in specific form and other Chines would witness the mistreatment it would be rejected.
During the 19th century, individuals from all around the world were loading up on to large boats filled with families and coming the United States to start a new life.

One of the many immigrants was Scottishman, Andrew Carnegie. One of Andrew Carnegie’s big accomplishments was when he built one of the largest still mills in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Within Andrew Carnegie explains in his book, Gospel of Wealth mentions, “Neither nor master nor servant was as well situated then as to-day. A relapse to old conditions would disastrous to both-not the least so to him who serves-and would sweep away civilization with it.” Describing the unfair relationship within the factories between the “master and his apprentices”, the apprentices were not treated equal with one another.
However, in 1892, steelworkers from Carnegie’s steel mills wanted to join the American Federation of Labor (AFL) who demanded for him to renew their contracts and to improve the working conditions. The American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, pushed for the idea of an 8-hour workday within the factories rather than working from sun up to sun. With additional support for improvements within the factories, in 1899 founders Jane Addams and Josephine Lowell had found The National Consumers League to help improve working conditions for women. Both groups also strongly believed that the prices between both sexes should earn equal wages for doing the same

jobs.