Fascinating insight, dear TXnMA!
Off the top of my head, I suppose many of the Framers were British-, Irish-, or Scots-born, or children thereof. But they had invested their own blood, treasure, and sacred honor in their new nation; so earned their "natural-born status" thataway.
They did not expect that their decendents would have to earn it thataway, but simply by virtue of being the offspring of American citizens.... Their generation had already paid the blood-price, as it were.
There is a more direct precedent for the current scenario: the presidency of Chester A. Arthur [1881–1885].
A legend had circulated in the public mind that Arthur was not a natural-born citizen of the United States because of his (alleged) Canadian birth. Like the Birthers today, a great many people back then thought the citizenship test rested on the jus solis doctrine. That is, the place of one's nativity is what gives you your citizenship, irrespective of parentage.
Of course that was all bunk, back then as well as today. The facts show that Chester A. Arthur was born to a "natural-" AND "native-"born American citizen — his mother — and an Irishman who was not a naturalized American citizen, and therefore under the British nationalities act of the time, was a British citizen.
It turned out that Arthur was born in the State of Vermont. But the geography is irrelevant to the question of "natural-born."
Anyhoot, on the historical record it appears that Chester A. Arthur was NOT a natural-born citizen of the United States. He served out his term. His bid to re-up was not successful.
Thankfully, he left little if any long-term public destruction in his wake.
Don't we live in interesting times, dear brother in Christ?
Au contraire, Madame!
You missed the "power" of my point: They recognized and acknowledged that they, themselves were not natural born (and never could be...) -- therefore, they "grandfathered themselves in" -- to "get around" the "natural born" requirement they had just codified in the Constitution.
If we can determine the birth status of our earliest Presidents, we will have some de facto examples of what "natural born" IS NOT.
And, if one of them matches Øbama's situation, then the case is closed; he is not qualified -- no matter how many fools voted for him and "gave him a pass".
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I agree with you on Arthur. However, IIRC, his "natural born" status was not questioned until after he had served his one term...
His father: Augustine Washington was born at Mattox Creek, in Virginia, in 1694.
His mother: Mary Ball Washington (1708 – 1789) was the second wife to Augustine Washington (after the first wife, Jane Butler, died) and was also the mother of George Washington. Mary Ball Washington was born as Mary Ball in 1708 in Lively, Lancaster County, Virginia.
Bottom line: George Washinton was a "Natural Born" Citizen, both Jus Sanguinis and Jus Solis.
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As they say in the military, "No joy with George"... :-(