Replies

“The point of any grandfather clause is the sunset effect. Once all who lived at the time the Constitution was adopted died off, the only remaining criteria would be NBC status. So I am not sure how to read your response.”

It is very simple. Those who were naturalized citizens, but who were alive at the time the Constitution was written, were allowed to run for President. It would include Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the British West Indies. As a political matter, his support was useful - he helped achieve ratification by writing 51 of the 85 installments of the Federalist Papers.

And since the large majority of those who were naturalized citizens/subjects of the original colonies had gone on to fight in the Revolution, it made sense that they should be of unquestioned loyalty to the new country.

You need to read the clause for what it is. It could have specified those who had been natural born subjects, and thus would have grandfathered in men like Thomas Jefferson - IF the Founders did not believe all natural born subjects who chose loyalty to the new country were natural born citizens of the new country. But that isn’t what they wrote, and isn’t what they believed. All who were NBS in the original colonies, if they remained in the new country, were held to be NBCs of the new country.

And what they WROTE was all “CITIZENS”, and the difference between NBCs and citizens is that the latter included both those born citizens, and those naturalized. As Minor later put it:

“Additions might always be made to the citizenship of the United States in two ways: first, by birth, and second, by naturalization.”

Citizen includes both. NBC includes only those born citizens. Thus the meaning of your ‘grandfather clause’ is clear - ANYONE who was a citizen, naturalized or by birth at the time the Constitution was adopted - was eligible. It was good politics, and good policy.

“Residents of the colonies through the course of the Revolution, who had not fought for or aided England in warring against the Patriot cause, ipso facto became the original citizens. There was no “naturalized” because these were The People of a new political entity formed out of a previous political entity.”

Correct. And thus Jefferson didn’t need a grandfather clause. Like all the original natural born subjects who remained in the new country, he was automatically considered a natural born citizen of the new country.

Remember, citizenship was critical to inheritance laws. And everyone who had been a NBS, and who remained after the Revolution, was automatically a NBC. This was tested in multiple inheritance cases, and the verdicts were 100%.

Thus the supposed grandfather clause did NOT exist for Jefferson or Washington, because everyone knew they were automatically NBCs of the new country. The grandfather clause allowed those who had emigrated to America prior to the Revolution to also be eligible. Good politics (Alexander Hamilton) and good policy.

If either of you doubt me, consider the case of Shanks v. Dupont - 28 U.S. 242 (1830).

“The treaty of peace was a treaty operating between the states on each side, and the inhabitants thereof; in the language of the seventh article, it was a firm and perpetual peace between his Britannic majesty and the said states, “and between the subjects of the one and the citizens of the other.” Who were then subjects or citizens, was to be decided by the state of facts. If they were originally subjects of Great Britain and then adhered to her, and were claimed by her as subjects, the treaty deemed them such. If they were originally British subjects, but then adhering to the states, the treaty deemed them citizens. Such, I think, is the natural and indeed almost necessary meaning of the treaty; it would otherwise follow that there would continue a double allegiance of many persons — an inconvenience which must have been foreseen and would cause the most injurious effects to both nations.”

http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/28/242/case.html