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?
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.