Yes, I see that and have thought much about it. The constitution clearly gives Congress the authority to naturalize. But this also causes argument over naturalized by statute and natural. Since the article says natural born for president and VP, I thought it might be better for congress to establish what jurisdiction might be in certain circumstances and use that as opposed to naturalization.
It seemed to me like they did that in 1790.
A real example, in today's law, is that "A 22 yead old shall be considered as a child"
Yep, that is a US regulation. So, is a 22 year old really a child?, or are we going to pretend so.
The 1790 Act is a definition all right. Properly read (as a definition), it says "A child born abroad to a citizen parent is NOT an NBC, but we'll pretend."