[DiogenesLamp]

Actually, the early laws don't say that. If you study the wording, you'll realize that only the father had to be a US citizen.

I ran across this comment of yours the other day and I was shocked and amazed. You DID Understand the point! Only the Father's citizenship mattered because women were naturalized (if foreign) by marriage.

There was never a condition in which parents ever had differing nationalities. (Until 1922.)

[xzins]

Obviously, the Founders in that 1790 law recognized one parent providing citizenship to the child. They would not allow it to pass through the mother, the mother who was in that era a non-voting, appurtenance of her husband.