This is a great summary, but confused me at the end with this quote: “Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, James F. Wilson of Iowa, confirmed this in 1866: “We must depend on the general law relating to subjects and citizens recognized by all nations for a definition, and that must lead us to the conclusion that every person born in the United States is a natural-born citizen of such States, except that of children born on our soil to temporary sojourners or representatives of foreign Governments.”
Unlike Bingham’s formulation, which clearly required birth in the U.S. to citizen parents, the Wilson formulation could be construed to mean that a U.S.-born child of alien parents permanently residing in the U.S. (even if they had not yet attained U.S. citizenship or even had plans to) could be considered natural born citizens. That is, if the parents are permanent U.S. residents, they can’t be characterized as “temporary sojourners.” This would seem to undercut the clarity of the author’s argument up until the Conclusion in which the Wilson quote appears.
Here are some additional historical events for our edification...
On June 18, 1787 Alexander Hamilton submitted a draft version of the US Constitution where he suggested the following qualification for President:
“No person shall be eligible to the office of President of the United States unless he be now a Citizen of one of the States, or hereafter be born a Citizen of the United States.”
To be “born a Citizen of the United States” means to be a native-born citizen, for the definition of native-born is “of a specified place by birth”. Here, “place” means the United States.
Five weeks later, on July 25, 1787, in response to Hamilton’s suggestion, John Jay wrote the following to George Washington at the time of the Constitutional Convention:
“Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.”
Now HERE IS THE IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE -— Neither Hamilton’s language (born a Citizen of the US) nor the term native-born citizen appear in Article II Section 1 Clause 5 of the US Constitution:
“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;…”
Instead, what appears in the Constitution is the term NATURAL BORN CITIZEN, which came from John Jay’s letter.
The Founding Fathers rejected Hamilton’s suggestion and chose John Jay’s term of natural born citizen. Why? Because they wanted future presidents to be born of the soil and full blood of the nation, and being born of the soil (native born) was not enough.
TO DIFFERENTIATE:
* Native-born citizen = Born of the soil (United States)
* Natural born citizen = Born of the soil (United States) AND full blood (two US citizen parents)
So, based on the above understanding, Even if we were to grant that Obama was born in Hawaii, he would only be a NATIVE-BORN citizen, but he is NOT and NEVER WOULD BE a natural born citizen because his father was not a US citizen.
But since he is now President, that would mean that most Americans have been acceding to an UNCONSTITUTIONAL reality.