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Top US International Lawyer Defines "Natural Born Citizen" in 1904
patlin ^ | 3/2/2010 | Alexander Porter Morse (1904)

Posted on 03/02/2010 11:43:58 AM PST by patlin

I was going to write an seperate article regarding this, but due to time constraints, I am just going to post this long hidden from public domain article regarding eligibilty requirements of those attaining to the office of POTUS. You can click the link at the end of the article to further read why a general definition of 'Native born' does not equate to 'Natural born' and how the DRONES try to obfuscate the debate in order to make them sound like they are equal on all levels. _________________________________________________

NATURAL-BORN CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES: ELIGIBILITY FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT

By ALEXANDER PORTER MORSE (ALBANY LAW JOURNAL VOL. 66 (1904-1905)

As a wide-spread interest attaches to the discussion of the meaning and scope of the constitutional provision in respect to eligibility for the office of president of the United States, I submit some views in this relation which may be opportune.

The question is often asked: Are children of citizens of the United States born at sea or in foreign territory, other than the offspring of American ambassadors or ministers plenipotentiary, natural-born citizens of the United States, within the purview of the constitutional provision? After some consideration of the history of the times, of the relation of the provision to the subject-matter and of the acts of congress relating to citizenship, it seems clear to the undersigned that such persons are natural-born, that is, citizens by origin; and that, if otherwise qualified, they are eligible to the office of president. In respect to the citizenship of children of American parentage, wherever born, the principle of ius sanguinis seems to be the American principle; that is to say, the law of hereditary, rather than territorial allegiance, is recognized, which is modern, as distinguished from the ancient, and at one time, common-law principle of jus soli. If the provision was as sometimes inaccurately cited, namely, that the president must be “a native-born citizen,” there might be no question as to its meaning. But the framers generally used precise language; and the etymology actually employed makes the meaning definite. Its correspondent in English law, “natural-born subject,” appears in constitutional history and parliamentary enactments; and there it includes all children born out of the king’s allegiance whose fathers were natural-born subjects; and the children of such children (i. e., children whose grandfathers by the father’s side were natural-born subjects), though their mothers were aliens, are now deemed to be natural-born subjects themselves to all intents and purposes, unless their said ancestors were attainted or banished beyond sea for high treason, or were at the birth of such children in the service of a prince at enmity with Great Britain. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, immigration was anticipated and provisions for naturalization would immediately follow the establishment of the government. Those resident in the United States at the time the Constitution was adopted were made citizens. Thereafter the president must be taken from the natural-born citizens. If it was intended that anybody who was a citizen by birth should be eligible, it would only have been necessary to say, “no person, except a native-born citizen”; but the framers thought it wise, in view of the probable influx of European immigration, to provide that the president should at least be the child of citizens owing allegiance to the United States at the time of his birth. It may be observed in passing that the current phrase “native-born citizen” is well understood; but it is pleonasm and should be discarded; and the correct designation, “ native citizen” should be substituted in all constitutional and statutory enactments, in judicial decisions and in legal discussions where accuracy and precise language are essential to intelligent discussion.

The earliest act of congress to establish a uniform rule of naturalization (March 26, 1790) contained the following clause: “And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born at sea or out of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens.” The draft of this act has been credited to Mr. Jefferson, although his authorship has been questioned; and his reputed relationship to it may be ascribed to the fact that he was the author of the original naturalization acts in the Constitution of Virginia, and was an ardent supporter of a wise system of naturalization laws before and after he became President. But whoever drew the act followed closely the various parliamentary statutes of Great Britain; and its language in this relation indicates that the first congress entertained and declared the opinion that children of American parentage, wherever born, were within the constitutional designation, “natural-born citizens.” The act is declaratory; but the reason that such children are natural born remains; that is, their American citizenship is natural—the result of parentage—and is not artificial or acquired by compliance with legislative requirements. The second act of naturalization (January 29, 1795), which was reported and probably drawn by Mr. Madison, chairman of a select House committee, enacted “That the children of persons duly naturalized dwelling within the United States, and being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, and the children of citizens of the United States born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States shall be considered as citizens of the United States.” As carried forward in the Revised Statutes, the provision reads: “All children heretofore born or hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or may be at the time of their birth citizens thereof are declared to be citizens of the United States; but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to children whose fathers never resided in the United States.” This provision, as its terms express, is declaratory; it is not the statute that constitutes children of American parentage citizens; it is the fact of American descent, the jus sanguinis, that makes them citizens at the moment of birth—a fact which, for sufficient and convenient reasons, the legislative power of the State recognizes and announces to the world.

If there was ambiguity, the rights and privileges of children of American parents dependent upon constitutional guarantee would demand recognition; and constitutional guaranties in favor of such persons might not be restricted or denied by congress.

To return to the constitutional requirement in respect to eligibility for the office of president, let us inquire what was the obvious purpose and intent of the limitation? Plainly, it was inserted in order to exclude “aliens” by birth and blood from that high office, upon considerations which naturally had much weight at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. It was scarcely intended to bar the children of American parentage, whether born at sea or in foreign territory. Where it was said in the old books that an alien is one born out of the king’s or State’s dominions or allegiance, this must be of the limits understood with some restrictions. A forced or restricted construction of the constitutional phrase under consideration would be out of harmony with ‘modern conceptions of political status, and might produce startling results. It remains to be decided whether a child of domiciled Chinese parents, born in the United States, is eligible, if otherwise qualified, to the office of president and to all the privileges of the Constitution. And it would be a strange conclusion, in another aspect, if the child of American parents, born in China, should be denied correspondent rights and privileges in the United States.

A natural-born citizen has been defined as one whose citizenship is established by the jurisdiction which the United States already has over the parents of the child, not what is thereafter acquired by choice of residence in this country.

Our conclusion is that the child of citizens of the United States, wherever born, is “a natural-born citizen of the United States,” within the constitutional requirement; and, as such, if possessed of the other qualifications, would be eligible for the office of president of the United States.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March, 19o4

click on link above to go to the article defining the different definitions of 'Native born'.


TOPICS: Education; Government; Politics; Reference
KEYWORDS: 1904; certifigate; elections; naturalborncitizen; obama
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To: edge919

Judges are not infallible. But one shouldn’t shouldn’t just hop, skip and jump into court like Merry Andrew, and try to stay away from Wong, and think the Court ain’t going to catch it. SCOTUS decisions are kinda important and I have proven to you modern courts will rely on it.

FWIW, I get paid by the hour with a commission for each convert, who is then transformed into a troll obot to go out and spread the word. Like in Amway, I am now a Diamond Distributor, and I get a cut off their converts. I plan on winning the trip to Hawaii.

Its easy. You don’t have to sell anything. The product sells itself. Btw are you aware how good our SA8 detergent is, and ......

parsy, who will share a testimonial from an ex-birther with you tomorrow....


81 posted on 03/02/2010 11:04:36 PM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: edge919

Judges are not infallible. But one shouldn’t shouldn’t just hop, skip and jump into court like Merry Andrew, and try to stay away from Wong, and think the Court ain’t going to catch it. SCOTUS decisions are kinda important and I have proven to you modern courts will rely on it.

FWIW, I get paid by the hour with a commission for each convert, who is then transformed into a troll obot to go out and spread the word. Like in Amway, I am now a Diamond Distributor, and I get a cut off their converts. I plan on winning the trip to Hawaii.

Its easy. You don’t have to sell anything. The product sells itself. Btw are you aware how good our SA8 detergent is, and ......

parsy, who will share a testimonial from an ex-birther with you tomorrow....


82 posted on 03/02/2010 11:04:37 PM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: Vendome

Hey, I lost you in the shuffle. I did Obamaville and Ode to orly Taitz. Haven’t worked on Squatting Over Wall Street anymore. Sprung my left had trying to re-learn left thumb positions. Been on guitar break for a few days.

parsy, who has Birthers running thru the briars and running thru the bushes and running thru the places where a rabbit wouldn’t go.....


83 posted on 03/02/2010 11:08:13 PM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: parsifal

You don’t have anyone running Parcy.I’ll bet you would shut up if someone propped a full length mirror beside you.


84 posted on 03/02/2010 11:59:49 PM PST by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get.)
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To: parsifal

Um no, all people from Arkansas don’t speak like that. Sorry, that is a lie.


85 posted on 03/03/2010 12:15:27 AM PST by mojitojoe (“Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism.” - Vladimir Lenin)
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To: parsifal

My eggs!? LOL ;-O

Thank you for a civil discussion, Parsy.

My views on Wong Kim Ark are thanks to the wisdom and knowledge of a lawyer steeped in Constitutional Law. It is unfortunate that there are so dang few of those types of gentlemen and scholars out here in the wide world.


86 posted on 03/03/2010 12:20:25 AM PST by SatinDoll (NO Foreign Nationals as our President!!)
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To: SatinDoll; bvw; Uncle Chip; El Gato; BP2; ASA Vet; Red Steel; STARWISE; DJ MacWoW; Las Vegas Ron; ..
Nocturnal grandma here, lol. When you can't sleep...READ...

Boring census records. Well, instead of putting me to sleep it revealed some rather interesting statistics.

The births were classified according to the nationality of the parent and were broken down into 3 categories:

Native...Foreign...Mixed/One Parent Foreign

The records are from 1849-1863

http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&pg=PT361&id=LvGPEgEu7ysC#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 & 1920 census records also break down the births according to the nationality of the parents.

Now, if the definition of citizen at birth actually was born=native=natural born then there would be only 2 categories of native & foreign.

The earlier records are classified by households & the household was either native or foreign/alien so I guess we can put to rest the drones ignorance in believing that the framers adopted some feudal definition of citizen.

87 posted on 03/03/2010 2:31:27 AM PST by patlin (1st SCOTUS of USA: "Human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law.")
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To: SatinDoll

I would have thunk people who put things into in the format of the Brothers Grimm were dang few also.

parsy, who is disappointed


88 posted on 03/03/2010 2:44:24 AM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: patlin

Interesting, but I think it is a stretch.

parsy, whose cat, Barack, just woke him up


89 posted on 03/03/2010 2:46:39 AM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: patlin

And before I forget, I am going to try to get back to the dream I was in. Which was weird. I was on a date with the girl who played Susie Wong in the movie. We went to the pizza parlor and ran into Jenna Jameson.

We went back to Jenna’s apartment, and she started to show us some of the secrets of the adult film industry. She pulled out the lamp from the Christmas Story(?) the one with Darin McGavin(?) and the B B gun. Anyway, she pulled out that lamp and told us that was what they used for close up shots.

I can figure out the Susie Wong thing. I can even sort of figure out how Jenna got into it. But I am just lost as to that stupid lamp.

parsy, who is trying to get back into that dream.....


90 posted on 03/03/2010 2:59:52 AM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: edge919

It is the same way Hitler rose to power. Lets pray that it is not the same way Obama stays in power.


91 posted on 03/03/2010 4:50:38 AM PST by castlegreyskull
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To: patlin
Another thing to look for are children who were naturalized when their father/mother were natrualized. Children born in the US to immigrating parents during the five year residency requirement set in 1802 became naturalized American citizens when their fathers/mothers became naturalized citizens.

The same naturalized couple often had older children who were naturalized citizens [born during naturalization] and younger children who were natural born [born after naturalization].

These children born during their parents' 5 year residency requirement were/are probably the ones that Obamabots erroneously call "native-born" citizens when in truth they are/were really "naturalized citizens" -- naturalized when their parents were naturalized.

[Please Be Advised: This post is protected by the SMWSS: the Selective Misspelled Wurd Security System. Words are selectively misspelled to prevent persnickety prattlers in cyberspace from reading it.]

92 posted on 03/03/2010 6:12:36 AM PST by Uncle Chip (TRUTH : Ignore it. Deride it. Allegorize it. Interpret it. But you can't ESCAPE it.)
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To: castlegreyskull

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2461337/posts

It gets interesting in the 100s.


93 posted on 03/03/2010 6:21:43 AM PST by little jeremiah (Asato Ma Sad Gamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya)
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To: edge919

I assume many of them know he is lying and actually ineligible but they don’t care.


94 posted on 03/03/2010 6:23:59 AM PST by little jeremiah (Asato Ma Sad Gamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya)
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To: mojitojoe
I really hate grammar whores but in your case, I will make an exception since you are an Curious George...

Reading your grammar correcting post, that "an" just jumped out at me.

I hate grammar whores too 'cause I make my share of mistakes.

95 posted on 03/03/2010 7:17:28 AM PST by lucysmom
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To: patlin
Now, if the definition of citizen at birth actually was born=native=natural born then there would be only 2 categories of native & foreign.

Depends on the reason the question was asked.

96 posted on 03/03/2010 7:22:11 AM PST by lucysmom
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To: parsifal

Three dupe posts = per word.


97 posted on 03/03/2010 9:50:54 AM PST by edge919
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To: patlin

If I follow, these three categories are essentially:

1) Natural born

2) Naturalized

3) Dual citizen (obviously there’s nothing inherently natural about dual citizenship)


98 posted on 03/03/2010 9:54:22 AM PST by edge919
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To: edge919

I know. I swear I ain’t doing it on purpose. BTW, did you like the Three Little Birthers story?

parsy, who was kinda proud of it....


99 posted on 03/03/2010 9:56:49 AM PST by parsifal (Abatis: Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside)
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To: David
McCain was in fact (according to his posted birth certificate) not born in the Canal Zone at all but instead was born in a private hospital in Colon, Panama

Give it up. The city of Colon on the Atlantic side of the isthmus was inside the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama Canal Company on the birth certificate was the operating entity of the canal and the surrounding territory of the canal zone.

When you don't know what you are talking about, it is best to stop talking.

100 posted on 03/03/2010 9:59:38 AM PST by oldbill
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