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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
So when you said you had provided documentation, you meant I should go read Jeff's post. Okay then.

I was merely asking you to examine the text you had already insinuated to be acceptable.

I looked up some of those names, and it appears that those naturalization acts applied to "persons who had left the State during the Revolution, and adhered to the crown, or, in the words of the statute, had 'joined the enemies of the State.'

Yet you provide no evidence of the search.

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That's a long, long--long--way from demonstrating that every resident of the US had to take a loyalty oath, regardless of their status during the war. Keep trying.

Not that it will matter. You've pretty well shown your mind is already made up.

Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts
Pages 25, 38, 105, 405 & 509

Top of page 510

March 6, 1790
……and John Sockman, first taking and subscribing the oath of allegiance to this commonwealth before two Justices of the peace shall be deemed adjuded and taken to be free citizens of this Commonwealth, and entitled to all the liberties, priviledges and immunities of natural born citizens.

Then they took the Certificate of the Oath and filed it with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.....or State.

THESE ARE THE RULES THE FOUNDING GENERATION MADE FOR THEMSELVES.

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You've never heard of the law of unintended consequences?

Like letting government exercise an authority that the Constitution never gave it?

450 posted on 03/28/2013 3:12:47 PM PDT by MamaTexan (Please do not mistake my devotion to fairness as permission to be used as a doormat)
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To: MamaTexan
Yet you provide no evidence of the search.

Sorry, it was an oversight. That quote came from"Naturalization in the American colonies, with more particular reference to Massachussetts" by Joseph Willard, in the Making of America library at the University of Michigan:

Among those naturalized, there were several persons who had left the State during the Revolution, and adhered to the crown, or, in the words of the statute, had "joined the enemies of the State." In the heat of the war, —September, 1778,- an Act was passed forbidding their return to the State, and providing for their removal in case of return. Should they voluntarily come into the State a second time, "without leave from the General Court," they were, "on conviction before the Superior Court, to suffer the pains of death, without benefit of clergy." All those persons who left the Province after the 5th of October, 1774, and before the "making" of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, and had taken English protection, were held to be aliens. By a law of 1784, these persons, if not named in the Confiscation Act of 1779, and not having borne arms against their country, might return to the State, under license from the Governor and Council. This license remained in force until the end of the next session of the General Court; at which time, unless the General Court had approved the license, or an Act of naturalization had been passed in favor of the individual, he was required " to depart the State."
Not that it will matter. You've pretty well shown your mind is already made up.

Let's review. You claimed that the Founders considered themselves to be Aliens, not natural-born citizens, of the country they just created, and furthermore, that the entire population of the United States had to be naturalized and take oaths of loyalty before they could be considered citizens. I found that an extraordinary claim and asked for some historical evidence. You've provided references to naturalizations in Massachusetts--nowhere else--with no support for the idea that they were required of all residents. The fact that I still doubt your claim is more a reflection of the weakness or absence of your evidence than it is that I've made my mind up. Surely some historian must have referenced this one-by-one naturalization of nearly 4 million people you claim happened.

462 posted on 03/28/2013 4:28:04 PM PDT by Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
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