[Nathanael1]

The two classes were not referring to two classes of citizens, but to two groups of people, the one consisting of those who were undoubtedly citizens who were born to parents both of whom were citizens, and the other those who may or may not be citizens who were born to aliens or foreigners in the United States.

I concur with all but the underscored bit. If Waite had intended "born to aliens or foreigners" he would have written that. But he wrote "born in the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of the parents". The only feasible construct of those words is "born in the jurisdiction with no consideration given as to whether their parents were or were not citizens". And that would be inclusive of those born of two citizen parents.

There is just no way to derive two mutually exclusive classes from the words of MvH here.

[aruanan]

I concur with all but the underscored bit. If Waite had intended "born to aliens or foreigners" he would have written that. But he wrote "born in the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of the parents". The only feasible construct of those words is "born in the jurisdiction with no consideration given as to whether their parents were or were not citizens".

That's because he was referring to what he had already written in the previous sentence about aliens and foreigners:

These were natives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first.

Okay, well, this is simply positing the existence of three groups. But the outcome is exactly the same. This is marking out a certain group, those who were born to parents who were citizens, the natural-born, whose status as citizens was not in doubt, and including them hypothetically within a larger group, all those born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their parents. It was said that there was doubt about the citizenship of this larger class derived from the more lax classification but not about the smaller class of natural-born citizens contained within it. The only ones in that larger class to whom doubt of their citizenship would be entertained would have been those born not to parents, both of which were citizens, but to those whose parents, one or both, were aliens and foreigners, those who are not natural-born.

That is, we have group A: the natural-born, all those born to parents who are both citizens, group B: all those born to parents who are not both citizens but aliens and foreigners, and group C: all those born to parents without reference to the citizenship of their parents. If there is no doubt as to the citizenship of A and doubt as to the citizenship of C, then the only ones remaining of C after A, the natural-born, is removed are those of B, those born to parents who are not both citizens and who are aliens and foreigners, those who are not natural-born.