“Why did the Founding Fathers change the language of the presidential eligibility from born a Citizen to natural born Citizen? “
Because they knew the law, and “natural born citizen” had an established meaning, and born a citizen did not. After all, some countries at the time used born a citizen to mean born anywhere of citizen parents. Others, like England, would have used it to mean born in country. So the Founders used a legal term with a known meaning based on English common law, known to every state since the states used the term in their own laws.
English common law uses the term Citizen? You are full of it.
While there are deviations from the Natural Law definition of “natural born”, these deviations have generally been asserted on the state rather than federal level and part of court „obiter dicta‟, offered without any supporting legal argument. Both British common law and American statutory history involve such assertions, yet these do not change the fundamental meaning of “natural born”, as it is exerting statutory definition on a term outside of Positive Law, when it is resolved by natural, self-evident means.
Not surprisingly the first 100+ years of this country‟s history are spanned by Supreme Court opinions clearly indicating the definition of natural born citizen, and repeatedly indicating the same reference consulted by our founders as they authored the Constitution in Carpenter's Hall, that reference being Emmerich de Vattel's "Law of Nations".
► 1814 The Venus, 12 U.S. (8 Cranch) 253, 289 (1814) (Marshall, C.J., concurring) (cites Vattel‟s definition of natural born citizens);
► 1830 Shanks vs. Dupont, 28 U.S. 242, 245 (1830) (same definition without citing Vattel);
► 1875 Minor vs. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162, 167-68 (1875) (same definition without citing Vattel);
► 1879 Ex parte Reynolds, 1879, 5 Dill., 394, 402 (same definition and cites Vattel);
► 1890 United States vs. Ward, 42 F.320 (C.C.S.D.Cal. 1890) (same definition and cites Vattel);
► 1898 U.S. vs. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) (same definition and C.J, Fuller‟s dissent confirming Vattel‟s definition of a “natural born Citizen” );
1899 Keith vs. U.S., 8 Okla. 446; 58 P. 507 (Okla. 1899) (common law rule that the offspring of free persons followed the condition of the father was applied to determine the citizenship status of a child);