“If “natural born citizen” is a synonym for “citizen,” then there is no reason for adding the exception “or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution.” None at all. Being a citizen is not sufficient, unless you happened to be alive when the Constitution was adopted.”
Excellent. Thanks for posting this.
It can also be shown that natural born citizen is not a synonym for citizen by looking at the 14th Amendment :
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States
So, if natural born citizen was the same as citizen then you could substitute the term citizens in the Fourteenth Amendment with the term natural born citizens. Doing so gives this :
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are natural born citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside
So, if the two terms citizens and natural born citizens were synonyms, then that would imply that naturalized citizens - those born overseas and later granted US citizenship - are eligible to become President of the United States. Even elementary school children know that is not possible and was never the intent of the Founding Fathers.