If the General and accepted rule was Jus Soli, what possible use could his father's naturalization papers serve?
How do you know he carried them around?
The Horizon ran aground in May, 1807.
In September 1807, Armstrong writes about McClure being in league with Vale. And working on a case of a shipwrecked ship (”Vail is the Agent of McClure in prosecuting a prize cause here.”)
In November, 1807 the resolution of the case of the Horizon was discussed by Armstrong to Madison.
Fast forward to March, 1810.
“On the 16th March, 1810 he writes him that the certificates of his father’s naturalization, and of his own birth and baptism, were not sufficient; they only prove that his father is an American Citizen, and that he himself was born in the US, and that “the evidence that will reach the case & substantiate (his) claim, is a certified copy of the act of S.Carolina, ‘naturalizing’ (his) father, provided that the “act naturalizes also the children of (his) “father born before his own date:”
In April, 1810 the French arrest McClure based on what Armstrong told them.
That’s a 2.5 year time gap.
When did the disagreement with Armstrong over his citizenship start?
Did McClure have time to arraign for his documents to be sent to him?
Why did Armstrong have no problem with McClure being an American in 1807 but in 1810 he was questioning it?
It seems to me they wanted McClure out of the way and would have made up any excuse to have him arrested.
Would they )Armstrong and Madison) ignore US law just to get McClure under wraps?