Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: ml/nj
So which of these classes included Thomas Jefferson?

Well if he was not natural born then he would have been naturalized, just as every other person alive when the Constitution was ratified. But the exception included in Article II allowed him to run for president.

179 posted on 03/06/2009 9:58:59 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 175 | View Replies ]


To: Non-Sequitur
Well if he [Thomas Jefferson] was not natural born then he would have been naturalized

No. That would only be if one accepted your silly notion that natural-born means the same thing as native-born (which it clearly does not) and that there are only two classes of citizens.

Naturalized is the past tense of a transitive verb. I know you wish to obscure the meaning of this English language that we use, but it is. Your use of this word would imply that there was some specific time when Thomas Jefferson was naturalized, which you know is nonsense. The Constitution itself refers to Jefferson as "a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of [the]Constitution," which means he was already a Citizen of the United States at that time. There was no naturalization, but he wasn't natural-born in their eyes. Words mean things, and it is unclear to me why you should wish to deny what the Framers plainly meant.

ML/NJ

182 posted on 03/06/2009 1:17:38 PM PST by ml/nj
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 179 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson