The definition can be partially discerned from article II, section I, clause 5 easily enough. this understanding was elaborated on by St. George Tucker (who passed the Virginia Bar on the verge of the Revolution). He said:
That provision in the constitution which requires that the president shall be a native-born citizen (unless he were a citizen of the United States when the constitution was adopted,) is a happy means of security against foreign influence, which, wherever it is capable of being exerted, is to he dreaded more than the plague. The admission of foreigners into our councils, consequently, cannot be too much guarded against; their total exclusion from a station to which foreign nations have been accustomed to, attach ideas of sovereign power, sacredness of character, and hereditary right, is a measure of the most consummate policy and wisdom. …The title of king, prince, emperor, or czar, without the smallest addition to his powers, would have rendered him a member of the fraternity of crowned heads: their common cause has more than once threatened the desolation of Europe. To have added a member to this sacred family in America, would have invited and perpetuated among us all the evils of Pandora’s Box.
Of Article II, section I, clause 5, Supreme Court Justice Joseph story said this 46 years after the adoption of the constitution:
A loophole for themselves was created out of respect to those distinguished revolutionary patriots, who were born in a foreign land
It doesn't get much clearer than that my friend.
Yes. Reprint from me...
The first 8 where “grandfathered in†by the Constitution BECAUSE the country was at its nexus. But of course the Framers wanted PURE citizens to be presidents afterwards. They DIDN’T say “only citizens†can be president, they said “only special citizens†can be president. There is NOTHING special about Cruz’s citizenship. Special citizenship was understood to be pure, unassailable, unquestionable, and NON-foreign. The FACT that Cruz’s eligibility is be questioned points to the OBVIOUSNESS of its inferiority to others. There are millions of natural born citizens in the country. Obama is not one, Cruz is not one, Rubio is not one. All of my life it was COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD that to be president you had to be born in AMERICA. Why have we walked this back? Why the desire to challenge the wisdom of the Founders? It is mind-boggling.
The problem with this argument is that the Constitution doesn't use the term "native-born citizen", it is "natural born citizen".