Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:

ZuZu's Petals

Published Letters: 42

Thursday, April 2, 2009 10:51 AM

ChillyDogg and "original intent"

ChillyDogg would have you believe that the reason the term "natural born citizen" is not defined in the Constitution is because the framers had a "common understanding" of the term, and that "common understanding" came not from British common law (which declared children British subjects at birth) but from the writings of a Swiss philosopher.

Well, we actually have some pretty good indications of how the term was understood by framers from certain states or at least by those state legislatures ratifying the new Constitution. For instance:

Georgia Charter of 1732

"Also we do for ourselves and successors declare by these presents that all and every the persons which shall happen to be born within the said province and every of their children and posterity shall have and enjoy all liberties franchises and immunities of free denizens and natural born subjects."

The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the United States … By Benjamin Perley Poore, United States

-----------------

South Carolina

"In 1712 the [General Assembly of the colony of South Carolina] reenacted certain English laws and among them the one of William III providing that a natural born subject might inherit estates even though his father or mother or the person he inherited from was an alien. This merely strengthened the rights of the natural born but did not change naturalization Its main interest lies in the fact that the assembly was in the habit of accepting English laws bodily.

The American Historical Review By John Franklin Jameson, Henry Eldridge Bourne, Robert Livingston Schuyler, American Historical Association, History Cooperative, JSTOR

(Organization)

(Oh, and BTW, the delegate from South Carolina, John Rutledge, was the Chairman of the Committee of Detail)

------------------------------

Naturalization Acts of New York (1770)

(Similar language in Naturalization Acts of Massachusetts)

"BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED by his Honor the Lieutenant Governor the Council and the General Assembly and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same that the before mentioned several Persons and each and every of them shall be and hereby are declared to be naturalized to all Intents Constructions and purposes whatsoever and from henceforth and at all Times hereafter shall be entitled to have and enjoy all the Rights Liberties Privileges and Advantages which his Majesty’s Natural born Subjects in this Colony have and enjoy or ought to have and enjoy as fully to all Intents and purposes whatsoever as if all and every of them had been born within this Colony."

January 27, 1770

The Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution Including the Charters to the Duke of York, the Commissions and Instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke’s Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York and the Acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775 Inclusive By New York (State), Charles Zebina Lincoln, William H. Johnson, Ansel Judd Northrup, New York (State)., New York (State). Commissioners of Statutory Revision, Albany (N.Y.)., New York (Colony), New York (Colony). Charters, New York (N.Y.)., New York (N.Y.). Charters

Most Active Letters Threads

740

The commendably missing element from Obama's speech

There was no pretense that human rights is our goal, or the likely outcome, in escalating the war
375

America's regression

It's almost impossible to find a nation with as many torture advocates as the U.S. has.
365

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
292

Palin: Birthers have "fair question" about Obama

Of Obama birth, the ex-governor says, "the public is still, rightfully, making it an issue" (Updated)
211

The poster boy for progressive self-delusion

Read Hayden's 2008 Obama endorsement to remember the way the left sold our centrist president to itself

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon