[DiogenesLamp]

Thomas Jefferson referring to the difference in origins between American law and British law.

"Our Revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered little into our former education."

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl278.htm

[DiogenesLamp]

On December 28, 1784, The State Assembly of Maryland Makes marquis de la Fayette a "natural born citizen" of Maryland.

II. Be it enacted, by the general assembly of Maryland, That the marquis de la Fayette, and his heirs male for ever, shall be, and they and each of them are hereby deemed, adjudged, and taken to be, natural born citizens of this state, and shall henceforth be entitled to all the immunities, rights and privileges, of natural born citizens thereof, they and every of them conforming to the constitution and laws of this state, in the enjoyment and exercise of such immunities, rights and privileges.

http://aomol.net/000001/000203/html/am203--378.html

What makes this significant is that it represents a complete acknowledgement by the Entire Legislature of Maryland that Citizenship shall descend through the male line, i.e. "Fathers." No mention is made of "place" whatsoever. This act Precedes the ratification of the US Constitution by the Maryland Assembly, and it is a reasonable to believe that they fully understood and agreed with the concept of citizenship through descent of Fathers 3 1/2 years later when they ratified the Constitution.

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