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To: WhiskeyX
Vattel’s Law of Nations used by John Jay and the other authors of the U.S. Constitution defined a natural born citizen as the child of two parents having U.S. citizenship at the time of the child’s birth.

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, etc. were all born to parents who were obviously British subjects, not U.S. citizens.

Unless there is some sort of "grandfathering clause" in the Constitution, then being born in one of the 13 Colonies was good enough for them to be POTUS-eligible.

43 posted on 11/06/2010 1:08:40 AM PDT by rfp1234
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To: rfp1234

Guess what! There is a “grandfathering clause.”


46 posted on 11/06/2010 1:33:32 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan (In Edward Kennedy's America, federal funding of brothels is a right, not a privilege.)
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To: rfp1234
Yes, Arthur McGowan is correct, there is a 'grandfather clause': Article 2, section 1 of the 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 who shall not attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."

The addition of a grandfather clause in this paragraph says a lot as to the meaning of natural born. The first thing it says is that being born in the US is not enough to be natural born, otherwise the grandfather clause would not be necessary. The writers and delegates, having been born in the US, wanted to be eligible for the presidency, but most were the children of British subjects. Knowing that that eliminated them from being natural born and, thus, from eligibility, they included the grandfather clause which expired when the last person alive at the time of the ratification of the Constitution died. So, being a native born citizen is not the same as being natural born. If it were the framers would not have included the clause.

(As posted by freeper 2ndDivisionVet on the website "Natural Born Conservative") http://larrymwalkerjr.blogspot.com/2009/03/true-definition-of-natural-born-citizen.html

The comments on the page are interesting as well.

48 posted on 11/06/2010 2:06:41 AM PDT by sneakers
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To: rfp1234

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[....]

The part saying “or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution” IS the grandfathering phrase. How did you miss it?


65 posted on 11/06/2010 6:40:49 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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