To travel from this country to any other took weeks, any way you cut it. If you went overland to the wilds of the north, it took weeks to get there. If you went overland to the wilds of the south, it took weeks to get there. If you went over the sea to England or France, that took weeks as well.Part of the issue is that there was no such thing as international tourism in those days. Things like "anchor babies" were unconceived of, and inconceivable. Perhaps if they had considered anchor babies and 300,000 people traveling from London to New York (and vice versa) every single month, they would have made a different decision.
Nonsense. We have a letter from Monroe regarding a British "Anchor Baby" from the period. We have a newspaper article purportedly from James Madison, regarding another. They were not only conceivable, we have proof that one, possibly two founders dealt with this exact issue. And what did they say about it? In the one case Monroe claimed the man was NOT a citizen, and in the other, The man's American citizenship was only recognized if the Law of South Carolina bestowed it upon him.
You just refuse to see these two examples for what they are. Proof that the founders were aware of "anchor babies" and that they rejected the idea.
James Monroe in a letter from Paris, July 4, 1795.
The jealousy which is entertained by this government of the commerce carried on by our countrymen between the ports of this republic and those of England has latterly shewn itself in a more impleasant form than heretofore and I am fearful it will not yet produce some more disagreeable effect. A Mr Eldred was lately apprehended at Marseilles and sent here under guard upon a charge of having given intelligence to the British of some movement in the French fleet. Upon inquiry I found he had my passport granted too upon the most substantial documents proving him to be an American citizen; but I likewise found that in truth he was not an American citizen, for although born in America yet he was not there in the course of our revolution but in England, nor had he been there since. From what I hear of him, he is not a person of mischevious disposition nor one who would be apt to commit the offence charged upon him, but yet I do not see how I can officially interfere in his behalf, for when once a principle is departed from, it ceases to be a principle. More latterly I was requested by the commissary of foreign affairs to prohibit our consuls from granting passports, which was immediately done. I was afterwards requested by him to furnish a list of the Americans actually in Paris, and to render a like list every decade of those who should in the interim arrive, and which was promised and will be punctually executed. I herewith send you a copy of my instructions to the Consuls and correspondence with the commissary on this subject.
The founders were not idiots.
You just refuse to see these two examples for what they are. Proof that the founders were aware of "anchor babies" and that they rejected the idea.No, I don't "refuse to see these two examples for what they are." I see quite clearly what they are.
It is YOU who refuse to see these two examples for what they are. And you refuse to do so, absolutely.
In the case of Eldred, Monroe was writing from Paris, France, in 1795. This was NINETEEN YEARS after the American Revolution had taken place.
Prior to the American Revolution, every person born in America was considered a BRITISH subject.
Upon the Revolution, it was necessary to divide the people into two groups: Those who would henceforth continue to be British subjects, and those who would henceforth be regarded as members of the new nation.
Those who adhered to the COMMUNITIES of which they had always been a part, were subjects or citizens of their State and of the United States. Since they had been born into those communities, those States, they were regarded as natural born subjects, or natural born citizens, of those States and of the United States.
The "grandfather clause" in the Constitution allowing for those who were citizens at the time of the adoption of the Constitution to be eligible to the Presidency was NOT for these people, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It was not needed by them.
It was needed by people such as James Wilson and Alexander Hamilton, who had been born in places like Scotland and the Caribbean, who had come to America and risked their lives and fortunes to help us win our Independence. And it was to honor such loyal Patriots that the grandfather clause was passed.
This is an historical FACT.
Those who were born in America had the opportunity to ELECT to adhere to their communities, or to adhere to the King. They had a CHOICE.
If a person stayed in the United States and participated from that time forth as an American citizen, he was deemed to have elected to be a United States citizen. Again, such persons were considered natural born US citizens, because they were simply continuing the allegiance they had ALWAYS had to their own communities, which were now United States communities.
If a person LEFT the country and moved to England, or elsewhere, he was deemed to have elected NOT to be a United States citizen, but to have continued to adhere to the CROWN. Such a person was considered a natural born subject of England. He had been born in allegiance to the King, and he had continued in that allegiance.
If a person was born in America, but was outside of the United States at the time of the Revolution, he indicated his election by either remaining outside of the United States, or by returning to the US to take up citizenship here. But such election had to be done in a timely manner.
And if a person was a MINOR at the time of the Revolution, he too had the opportunity to specify who he was following: His community, or the King.
If a person was born on US soil, and carried to England as a minor by his or her parents, that person had the ability, upon reaching adulthood, to reject the election of subjecthood to the King that his or her parents had made for him. He or she could return to America as a young adult, and take up United States citizenship, having elected to continue to adhere to the community and not the King.
But such election had to be made in a timely manner. In Inglis (1830), the Supreme Court said that Mr. Inglis had been born during the time when Americans were making such election, and had had the opportunity to return from England as a young adult and take up US citizenship, but that by the time he had reached 40-something years old, it was too late for him to do so. He had "ratified" the choice of British citizenship that his parents had made for him.
Mr. Eldred whom you refer to was in the same circumstances:
Upon inquiry I found he had my passport granted too upon the most substantial documents proving him to be an American citizen; but I likewise found that in truth he was not an American citizen, for although born in America yet he was not there [in America] in the course of our revolution but in England, nor had he been there since.
This letter was written in 1795, 19 years after the Declaration of Independence. Monroe is simply saying that in the division of Americans into United States citizens and English subjects, Eldred had clearly elected to be an subject of England and not a United States citizen.
As for McClure, President Madison's administration sent a letter attesting to his United States citizenship, and he was released. The sole basis stated for his American citizenship was that he had been "born in Charleston since the Revolution." No mention whatsoever was made of his ever having been naturalized, because he wasn't. He was born a citizen. He was a natural born citizen.
Again, there were only two kinds of citizens: natural born citizen, and naturalized citizens. McClure was a natural born citizen.
And the basis for his citizenship mentioned NOTHING whatsoever about the citizenship of his father. He was a natural born United States citizen solely on the basis of the fact that he had been born in Charleston, South Carolina, since the Revolution.
And that phrase: "SINCE THE REVOLUTION" removed from McClure any of the kind of doubt that might attach to a person such as Mr. Eldred. Being born in Charleston clearly after the Revolution, he had had no election to make. He was a natural born United States citizen.