[SoJoCo]

As I said, it would behoove you to actually read the entire speech which is about a controversy over the citizenship of a new member of Congress lest you once again take Madison's quote OUT OF CONTEXT...

I see the problem right off the bat. I read the entire speech without the words that you inserted about ties of the parents. Had I discarded everything Madison had said and invented meanings that fit your agenda then I would no doubt have come to the same conclusion as you did. My bad.

[patlin]

What part of “Smith was a minor & thus his citizenship was dependent upon the citizenship of his guardian” do you not understand? Also, we're talking apples & oranges as Smith's citizenship depended on the state as the they were under the Confederacy at the time as the Federal government & US Constitution had not even began to form. So, for you to say that soil was the only determining factor is just plain ignorant. As I said, CONTEXT is everything & one can not determine citizenship during the Confederate revolution time the same as one does AFTER the ratification of the Constitution.