Martin Van Buren was the first President born in the United States: The First Seven Presidents Were Not American Citizens at Birth

History Facts ^ | 06/22/24

[SeekAndFind]

None of the United States Presidents in the first 61 years of the nation’s existence were actually born in the country they led. The reason for this is simple enough: The first seven U.S. Presidents — George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson — were all born before 1776, and therefore before the United States was an independent nation.

The first President who could actually claim to have been born a U.S. citizen was the country’s eighth President, Martin Van Buren. Van Buren was born in 1782 in Kinderhook, New York, which also makes him the first native of the Empire State to be elected to the presidency.

Before becoming President in 1837, Van Buren served as Vice President under Andrew Jackson (who himself was born in 1767 in a territory disputed between the British colonies of North and South Carolina). Jackson’s endorsement helped elevate Van Buren to the nation’s highest office.

However, his presidency was marked by a severe economic downturn, which sunk his bid for a second term. He was defeated in his campaign for reelection by William Henry Harrison, who was born in Virginia in 1773, making him the last U.S. President to come into the world a subject of the British Empire.

English was Martin Van Buren’s second language.

Martin Van Buren may have been the first President born in the United States, but his first language wasn’t English — it was Dutch. His family’s roots in Kinderhook, New York, extended back before the nation’s founding, and even before New York was a British colony. Van Buren could trace his heritage to Dutch immigrants who settled in the Kinderhook area in 1631, when New York was known as New Netherland. Even after control of the colony passed from the Dutch to the English, Kinderhook remained an overwhelmingly Dutch community, and the young Van Buren grew up speaking the Dutch language until he learned English in school, and became fluent in his teens.

[SeekAndFind]

Was the United States of America in existence when Washington, Adams and Jefferson were born?

Weren’t Massachusetts and Virginia colonies of Great Britain at that time?

[x]

As I remember, FDR and Frederick Vanderbilt were neighbors, though looking at the map, they were on opposite sides of the village of Hyde Park. Still, their mansions aren’t that far apart.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

The first seven were British subjects born in British colonies in America, which became the states, which became the United States. If they weren’t natural-born citizens by virtue of that, what would they be?

The writer should have written that Van Buren was the first president to be born after the United States was formed.

[Glad2bnuts]

Their sole loyalty was to the cause of self government. They were all Americans through and through. That is all that was important. What better way to ascertain loyalty, than being dependent on ones self, and dedicated to keeping outside forces away from there hearth and home?

Now that government has made us all dependent, owing to the fact that money is no more ours than the food stamps government hands out. America died around WW 1, with the income tax, institution of the private for profit bank, The federal reserve, which holds no reserves, and world control. We are only now reaping those dark rewards. Wars fought for no reason at all, 100’s of Trillions in debt, and borders thrown open.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: The writer should have written that Van Buren was the first president to be born after the United States was formed.

The writer said that Van Buren was the first president born in the United States. What’s the difference?

[x]

The Constitution made everyone living in the country at the time of its adoption a US citizen, so even Alexander Hamilton (born in the West Indies) was eligible to become president (Hamilton recognized, though, that he’d never be elected and may not have wanted to be). But considering that all of the Founders were born British citizens and in the overwhelming number of cases their parents were as well, it does call into question whether they would really have believed that there was a difference between a “citizen from birth” and a “natural born citizen.”

[frog in a pot]

Were the various presidents you cite born before the existence of the U.S. created in 1787?
If so, under what theory could they be deemed to have been born in the U.S.?

Most importantly, were the parents of the various presidents you cite, citizens of the yet-to-be-created U.S. when their sons were born?

Bonus question:
The founders allowed for mere citizens to be president, why was it not possible for them to immediately require NBC but rather to require the higher form of citizenship after the passage of time?

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Why do I get the feeling that this is one of those disingenuous articles that has a hidden meaning, hidden for now at least.

[Leep]

Or, the USC is null and void..?

[jocon307]

I remember my dad telling me that Alexander Hamilton probably would have been POTUS, except that he’d been born in Bermuda (or the Bahamas, one of those Caribbean places!)

[plain talk]

Martin van Buren was a descendent of Cornelis Maessen who immigrated from the Netherlands to America in 1631. His family was established in America long before it became a country.

[Glad2bnuts]

There was no such animal as a British Citizen, they were subjects of the Crown, as were the French.

Ask Americans to choose between country and money, 2/3rds will choose the money. Ask the illegals to choose between self determination and money/benefits 90% choose freebies. Ask legal immigrants to choose, close to 100% choose Liberty, and country.

[batazoid]

Abraham Van Buren, Martin’s father, was born in Albany, New York on February 17, 1737. Martin’s mother, Maria Goes, was born in Kinderhook, New York in (1747), making Martin an Art. II, §1, Cl. 5 natural-born citizen.

[AndyJackson]

But it was adopted by racists, so it doesn’t count.

[Sequoyah101]

A BS distraction trying to make an illogical and unlawful conclusion. Here is what it says and we all know what it means. Never mind that it would have been impossible to have had a first President born in the United States since it didn't exist in time for that.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution

This was for the first round of Presidents. How they were conferred citizenship at the time of the adoption of the constitution I don't know.

[rxh4n1]

“Van Buren was born in 1782 in Kinderhook, New York”

Technically, yes, the first born after we declared independence, but Britain didn’t recognize it until 1783. So, you could consider him still a British subject.

[Robert DeLong]

You are the moron.

The parents of these 7 presidents were citizens of this landmass even though they were British subjects as far as the King of England was concerned. Thus their offspring were considered as citizens of this landmass at the time of their birth. When the colonies gained independence from Britain, all citizens were automatically deemed to be citizens who owe no allegiance to a foreign nation. Their offspring were considered as Natural Born Citizens that appears in the Constitution to define those eligible to hold the Office of President & Vice President of the newly formed nation. They went on to make it possible for the offspring of naturalized citizens to be eligible and considered as Natural Born Citizens as well. But the NBC status is only recognized of those offspring that were born after the naturalization process had made the immigrants citizens. The children born before that naturalization process had been completed were only recognized as citizens just like their parents.

It's people like you who have eroded the Constitution, by accepting the narratives of those who are trying to destroy this nation bypassing the amendment process. Instead people like you act like that it is not important to follow the Constitution as written. Want to make these people to be considered as NBC? Then create an amendment that either changes or eliminates that language in the Constitution that specifies the qualification of holding either the office of President or Vice President.

Because until that happens it still remains as a qualification. The argument that the 14th Amendment answers the question of what NBC means is not accurate, and their is nothing in the Constitution as to the citizen status of a child born in this nation to either visitors or those here illegally as to their citizenship of this nation.

Why the Supreme Court has not rendered a decision only means they do not have the authority to make that ruling.

The only way to solve this is via the amendment process.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

The writer made it sound as if there was a significant difference in the circumstances of the birth of the first seven and Van Buren. Of course the first seven couldn’t have been born in the United States since there wasn’t a United States. They were in the same boat as everyone else born here before 1776. But they were born in predecessors of the states and therefore were citizens of the of the U.S. The writer could make some people believe that the first seven were not NBC when in fact they were. I could be nitpicking but this is the kind of stuff the ill-informed latch on to.

[SunkenCiv]

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[DiogenesLamp]

Naw, this is just to wind up those “NBC” morons

Yeah, those stupid people who believe magic dirt makes them a Citizen.