"Always" is irrelevant to the meaning of "half a foreigner."
-PJ
I found Paine’s statement confusing.
I always just assumed the King/Queen of England was English. And his statement essentially is ‘In England, the Monarch is sometimes a foreigner, always a half foreigner and always married to a foreigner’.
The King is sometimes a foreigner but even in times when he is not a foreigner, he is still a half foreigner and even if he marries an English woman, he still marries a foreigner. It reads like some kind of riddle.
BTW, Paine’s says that in England foreigners cannot be members of Parliment. John Jay said he thought that the same should be true for the United States.
In a letter to Timothy Pickering,
Dear Sir
It is said that the Naturalization Act is to be revised and amended. Permit me to suggest an idea which I have for many years deemed important. We doubtless may grant to a foreigner just such a portion of our rights and privileges as we may think proper. In my opinion it would be wise to declare explicitly that the right and privilege of being elected or appointed to or of holding and exercising any office or place of trust or power under the United States or under any of them shall not hereafter be granted to any foreigner but that the president of the United States with the consent of the Senate be nevertheless at liberty to appoint a foreigner to a military office.
I am dear sir
Your most obedient servant
John Jay
And both New York and Massacusetts sent requests to Congress to amend the Constitution so only natural born citizens could be Senators or Representatives.