[rxsid]

"Have you any evidence suggesting that Vattel's work was "known to ordinary citizens in the founding generation"?"

Yes. There is evidence that Vattel's work was "celebrated" as "genius" nearly a quarter of a century prior to the penning of the Constitution.

The framers thought it an important enough legal treatise that they openly read and referenced his work during the Constitutional Convention itself.

[machogirl]

They did. They drew from the best to form a more “perfect union”. The Founding Fathers were brilliant. To meet them and pick their brain............ Not only brilliant, but courageous. Their heads were on the line, literally.