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It’s not that difficult to translate the exact term “natural born citizen” in English from Vattel’s French.

Regardless, from what I understand, most if not all of the founding fathers had read Vattel’s Law of Nations. Does English common law deal with the phrase “natural born citizen?”

I don’t know where else it could have come from, other than The Law of Nations.

The Constitution uses the term “natural born citizen” for a very explicit reason. They didn’t arbitrarily come up with some new phrase for no particular reason. They got it from somewhere.

It’s not that difficult to translate the exact term “natural born citizen” in English from Vattel’s French.

Regardless, from what I understand, most if not all of the founding fathers had read Vattel’s Law of Nations. Does English common law deal with the phrase “natural born citizen?”

I don’t know where else it could have come from, other than The Law of Nations.

The Constitution uses the term “natural born citizen” for a very explicit reason. They didn’t arbitrarily come up with some new phrase for no particular reason. They got it from somewhere.

165 posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 3:27:25 PM by jwl23

It is clear to anyone who has researched the qualifications for the Presidency that the Natural Born Citizen qualification came from the Founding Fathers’ readings of Vattel’s Law of Nations.

“The natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens... it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.”

William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England was published in in 1765 in England and a couple of years later in America. (the edition I'm looking at says it was published in Philadelphia in M DCC LXXI, which I think is 1771). Blackstone's Commentaries is considered the definitive statement of the English common law, which at the time was the law applicable in all of North America and with which the founders were familiar and under which, at the time, they lived.

I would guess that the Commentaries are available online, but the second paragraph of "Chapter the Tenth" states:

The first and most obvious division of the people is into aliens and natural born subjects. Natural born subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England; that is, within the ligeance, or as it is generally called, the allegiance of the king: and aliens, such as are born out of it.

But regardless of the common law of England, or whether the law of Switzerland was ever as Vetter wished it to be, James Madison who attended the Constitutional Convention and participated in the debates (and who was often referred to as the "Father of the Constitution") wrote that the place of birth was definitive in the United States and that no further inquiry was necessary.

In my book, Obama is evil incarnate; his only redeeming feature being that his abject incompetence keeps him from achieving even greater depths of evil. But, the way to stop this guy is to firmly oppose his legislative agenda in the next Congress, undo as much of the damage caused by the last Congress as possible and work tirelessly to make sure that this guy and his minions in other elective offices lose as overwhelmingly as possible in the next election cycle.