Which, when you think about it, casts doubt on this whole question of intent."
1811.
Without the grandfather clause to exempt those that gave their blood, treasure and honor in fighting the Revolutionary War, that would have been the earliest an eligible candidate would have meet the age requirement (assuming 1776 as the begining of the country, and meeting residancy requirements).
Clearly, their intent was looking past their generation, those former British subjects (and citizens from other country's) who became U.S. citizens during that summer of 1776.
The founding document:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.htmlThe unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
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“The founding document...The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America”
I realize people like to pretend there was one continuous national government from the Continental Congress to the present day. But that’s really more of historical or abstract possibly even metaphysical purposes. For practical purposes, until the states ratify the Constitution, there is no federal government as created by the Constitution to recognize you as its citizen. The thing you are a citizen of today, in addition to your state, is the federal government as established by the Constitution.
The Declaration created a free union of states, or declared itself to. But unless it won the war with Britain and eventually adopted the Constitution, the thing you are a citizen of would not exist. You could not be a natural born citizen of the constitutional U.S., nor a president of the U.S. There would be no such thing, because there would be no U.S. under the Constitution.
“the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”
The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God do not entitle you to be born a citizen of the U.S. That right cannot exist until such time as there is a U.S. to be a citizen of, and that time comes only when there is positive law to make it so.