[EnderWiggins]

I understand your position and admire your command of French. Your problem remains this:

In 250 years, no professional translator has ever once translated "naturels" to "natural" in a single English edition of de Vattel. It has always been translated as "native" in every single such edition from the first English edition in 1759 to this very day.

So... your confidence that any of the Framers might have instead come up with the otherwise anomalous "natural born citizen" is misplaced, unless you can come up with a single example of a single Framer who actually mentioned citizenship and de Vattel in the same breath.

In contrast, "natural born subject" was a commonly used term of art in English common law, familiar to the Framers, most of whom were lawyers who practiced that law. And it is English common law that the Supreme Court has explicitly used in discussions of American citizenship law... not de Vattel

[DoctorBulldog]

Adams (1787): "with the other volumes. In the afternoon I took up Vattels’ law of nature and of nations. Emmerich de Vattel, Le droit des gens; ou, principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations ... " http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=ADMS-search-1&mode=TOC Interesting that Adams had no problem translating "naturelle" into "nature..." And, please note the date of 1787... Cheers

[DoctorBulldog]

Sorry for the formatting problem. Drat! My fingers betrayed me again! LOL!

Adams (1787):

"with the other volumes. In the afternoon I took up Vattels’ law of nature and of nations. Emmerich de Vattel, Le droit des gens; ou, principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations ... "

http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=ADMS-search-1&mode=TOC

Interesting that Adams had no problem reading French and translating "naturelle" into "nature..."

And, please note the date of 1787... Hmmm.. When was the U.S. Constitution ratified again?

Cheers