[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I find John Jay to be persuasive myself [post 262].

[Abd al-Rahiim]

You're interpreting Jay's letter in light of ONE WAY to translate de Vattel's French. But Chief Justice Waite, Justice Gray, and Vice Chancellor Sandford all found "resort" in "common law," not de Vattel. Moreover, Chief Justice Marshall's reference to de Vattel in The Venus (1814) DID NOT USE the phrase "natural-born citizen" but rather "The natives, or indigenes,..."

If you interpret Jay's letter in light of "common law," you see that he's referring to "natural-born" as in, you had to be born here. Chief Justice Waite himself said that at "common law," there was no doubt that if you were BORN HERE to CITIZEN PARENTS, then you were a "natural-born citizen" but there was some doubt as to whether you needed to have citizen parents.