From the Naturalization Act of 1790 (from Wikipedia):
“The Act also establishes the United States citizenship of certain children of citizens, born abroad, without the need for naturalization: “the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens: provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States”.
Notice that embedded within this clause is a definition of what the founders considered to be a “natural born citizen” which is “children born of citizens of the United States”.
The only time “natural born citizen” was used in the Constitution — when stipulating requirements to be President.
This Act is well-known, but was but was not mentioned in this article. And, some people claim that an expert is needed to understand it. Of course, the Act has been replaced a number of times; but it contains a definition of what the framers had in mind about the “natural born citizen” requirement.
More than likely it was merely to correspond with the Constitution's grandfather clause and be of limited duration since they repealed that naturalization act in it's entirety just 5 years later without the natural born provision.
The Naturalization Act of 1795,
Section 4
And be it further enacted, that the Act, intitled, "An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization," passed the twenty-sixth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, be, and the same is hereby repealed.
There is nothing to show the Founders had long term intentions to allow people born overseas who were not in service to the country to be Natural born citizens.
I hate it when people cite that act because they always leave out the salient clause, as you did too.
Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States:
Apparently Congress had a problem with Non Resident (meaning Foreign) Fathers. It disallowed citizenship for those people born to Foreign Fathers.
Now are you happy you brought this up? Your citation of the Naturalization act of 1790 absolutely proves you wrong. Children born to foreign fathers are REJECTED for citizenship.
Next time remember that the document proves the opposite of what you want before you bring it up.