Research - Vattel & the meaning of the Constitutional term "Natural Born Citizen"

http://www.loc.gov/index.html ^ | 5/12/2010 | many

[rxsid]

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 from the U.S. Constitution states:

"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."

[rxsid]

A relatively unknown name from the era...

"While Minister to France in 1778, he [Silas Deane] wrote to Mr. Jay as follows:

Native citizens , on several valuable accounts, are preferable to aliens, or citizens alien-born , Native citizens possess our language, know our laws, customs and commerce have general acquaintance in the United States give better satisfaction, and, are more to be relied on in points of fidelity . To avail ourselves of native citizens, it appears to me to be advisable to declare by standing law, that no person, but a native citizen , shall be capable of the office of consul."

The above from:

Collection: The Civil War
Publication: VINCENNES GAZETTE
Date: September 19, 1855
Title: WEDNESDAY,::: SEPTEMBER 12.
Location: VINCENNES, IND.

[bushpilot1]

http://www.archive.org/stream/notesacourselec00vattgoog#page/n7/mode/1up

[bushpilot1]

[rxsid]

Collection: The Civil War
Publication: VINCENNES GAZETTE
Date: December 5, 1855
Title: THE PRINCIPLES OF THE AMERICAN PARTY .
Location: VINCENNES, IND.

"...But we do not rely upon their inconsistencies for our justification. We go to the Constitution of the United States, which every member of the American party is solemnly pledged to support and maintain.

From that instrument we learn that in 1787, when there were comparatively but few upon our soil owing allegiance to foreign power, the wise farmers of our Constitution, imbued with the same spirit of Native Americanism which now animates us, declared:

1st. No person, except a natural born citizen , shall be eligible to the office of President.

2nd. The Vice-President of the United States must have the same qualifications as the President.

3rd. No person shall be Senator until he has been nine years a citizen of the United States.

4th. No person shall be a Representative in Congress until he has been seven years a citizen of the United States.

5th. The President is Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States; therefore, such Commander-In-Chief must be a native born American citizen.
[Notice here, #1 and #5, natural born and native born are used synonymously. Native born and natural born were synonymous then. See previous page for a number of examples.]

It was to guard against foreign influence —then in its infancy, but even then regarded with a distrustful and jealous eye—that these wise provisions were embodied in our Constitution.

No one will pretend to say that these restrictions in the Constitution are proscriptive.

How than can we be termed proscriptive, when—in view of the fact that foreigners are landed upon our shores at the rate of one thousand each day, and are led up to our ballot-boxes almost as soon as they arrive —we simply extend the Constitutional restriction by declaring that we will not elect to any office any other than those who under the Constitution can be elected President, or take the command of our Army and navy?..."

It appears they were looking to extend the "natural born Citizen" requirement to other office holders...as was originally considered by the several states during the ratification of the Constitution.

[rxsid]

Collection: African American Newspapers
Publication: THE NATIONAL ERA
Date: February 11, 1858
Title: CITIZENSHIP: STATE CITIZENS, GENERAL CITIZENS. SPEECH OF HON. PHILEMON BLISS, OF OHIO, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 7, 1858
Location: Washington, D.C.

CITIZENSHIP: STATE CITIZENS, GENERAL CITIZENS. SPEECH OF HON. PHILEMON BLISS, OF OHIO, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 7, 1858.

"...The words translated citizen were originally used to designate the privileged inhabitants of the chief city and their immediate descendants. Aristotle, the apostle of conservative democracy, defines a citizen to be one born of citizen parents , who has a right to participate in the judicial and executive part of government..."

[rxsid]

The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Volume 1
CHAPTER XVII. LIVINGSTON--MORRIS.

"Mr. Dumas, who had made international law his specialty, recalled himself very acceptably to Dr. Franklin in the autumn of 1775, by sending him copies of Vattel, edited and annotated by himself; a most timely gift, which was pounced upon by studious members of Congress, groping their way without the light of precedents."

From Parton's Franklin, 111.

[bushpilot1]

Morse on Citizenship confirms naturels to natural born. Located by RS. The referenced 1863 Edition

[rxsid]

"The law of nations is part of the municipal law of Great Britain"

U.S. Supreme Court
Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. 3 Dall. 199 199 (1796)

[rxsid]

"An act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains, and consequently can never be construed to violate neutral rights or to affect neutral commerce further than is warranted by the law of nations as understood in this country."

U.S. Supreme Court
Murray v. The Charming Betsey, 6 U.S. 2 Cranch 64 64 (1804)

[bushpilot1]

http://www.clevelandstatelawreview.org/58/Issue%203/Charles.pdf

page 538.

[bushpilot1]

59
See EMER DE VATTEL, THE LAW OF NATIONS OR PRINCIPLES OF THE APPLIED CONDUCT
AND AFFAIRS OF NATIONS AND SOVEREIGNS (New York, Messrs. Berry and Rogers, no. 35,
Hanover-Square 1787).

For Vattel’s influence on the Founding Fathers, see BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN, MEMOIRS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 297 (1834);

Andrew Lenner, Separate Spheres:
Republicanism Constitutionalism in the Federalist Era, 41 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 254, 259
(1997); James H. Kettner, The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary
Era: The Idea of Volitional Allegiance, 18 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 208, 219 (1974); Andrew C.
Lenner, John Taylor and the Origins of American Federalism, 17 J. EARLY REPUBLIC 399,
406, 408, 411 (1997); JAMES H. KETTNER, THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP,
1608-1870, at 188 (1978); PETER & NICHOLAS ONUF, FEDERAL UNION, MODERN WORLD: THE
LAW OF NATIONS IN AN AGE OF REVOLUTION, 1776-1814, at 123-44 (1993) [hereinafter ONUF,
FEDERAL UNION, MODERN WORLD].
60

[rxsid]

Vattel was "Celebrated" in North Carolina in 1764!, nearly a quarter of a century prior to the Constitution being written. Clearly, Vattel was well read and respected across the colonies well in advance of not only the Constitution...but the Declaration of Independence as well!

The North Carolina Magazine or Universal Intelligencer 1764-09-07

James Davis (the original link to the PDF at www.ncpress.com was removed sometime between the time I viewed it last Friday (2/25/11), to today, Monday (2/28/11)).

 

Note: Currently unable to locate the continuation, searching up to the first few editions of 1765.

[bushpilot1]

[bushpilot1]

[devattel]

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania clearly agreed on Vattel's definition in its citizenship law passed in 1799:

[Spaulding]

(the original link to the PDF at www.ncpress.com was removed sometime between the time I viewed it last Friday (2/25/11), to today, Monday (2/28/11)).

If more of the public was aware of the instinct to book burning being perpetrated by the left the nature of the war against truth would be more apparent. A great many of past revolutions have culminated in destruction of the records of the preceding government. Some clearly know the perfect timing of Vattel's blueprint for constitutional republics, which is really our founding document, and would prefer it disappear, since it contains the profane truth that our would-be dictator is ineligible for the office of president.

Is North Carolina Press a state funded publisher? I suspect they are, we are paying for their efforts to control, even to rewrite, our history. History is full of tyrannies which found it necessary to bury the history of those they vanquished.

At least they didn't remove the screen images, for which our tax dollars paid. For those interested, if you can find the scaling control among printer preferences to reduce the image to around 95% the screen images are printable, and quite readable.

Great work, as usual, rxsid. If we retain a free press you should compile the amazing sources you, bushpilot1, Palin and other FR historians are turning up and publish "What Made us a Free Republic". Most should be long past copywrite restrictions, but a publisher can advise you. Even if Barry survives his first term, if freedom prevails there will law suits and continuing struggles with would-be statists-socialists-Marxists-communists. FR is one of a few honest repositories not dominated by the mainstream media, providing a record of the the growing awareness among U.S. citizens that our government is headed by an illigitimate Chief Executive. Because "Free" Republic respects the Constitution and its 1st Amendment, the arguments of Obama's trolls are amply represented, but aren't allowed to dominate discussions with bully tactics.

[rxsid]

John Quincy Adams - The Law of Nature and Natural Law, was the basis for the Declaration of Independence.

The jubilee of the Constitution: A discourse delivered at the request of the New York historical society, in the city of New York, on Tuesday, the 30th of April, 1839; being the fiftieth anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as president of the United States, on Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789
John Quincy Adams, 1839

[bushpilot1]

What Seems Doubtful Must Be Explained

Vattel says: “We ought to interpret obscure and ambiguous expressions in such a manner that they may agree with those terms that are clear and without ambiguity.”—B. 2, Ch. 17, Sec. 284.

[patlin]

here are photos of the Dublin: Printed for Luke White Edition of "Law of Nations". Some of the pics are a bit fuzzy but they are still legible. The book & pages are very tender and I did not want to chance further damaging it by forcing it open to lay it on the scanner. These will have to do until I am no longer contagious & can have a visitor over to help:

[rxsid]

Thanks patlin. That confirms the posting last year of the Luke White/Dublin Edition.