[AmericanVictory]

Suggest you read the sources of the time, particularly the concurring opinion of Chief Justice John Marshall in The Venus, joined by Justice Livingston and particularly the opinion of Justice Joseph Story in Shanks v. Dupont, particularly what he say about English common law as "mere municipal law" as opposed to the law of nations from which the Framers took the law concerning citizenship. Also persuasive are the annotations on the meaning of the phrase in Article II in St. George Tucker's American edition of Blackstone and the well known essay on citizenship by Daniel Ramsay of South Carolina as well as the well known letters by John Jay to Washington just before the decision to adopt the phrase. There is also the fact that the Dred Scott decision was law until the passage of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment did not purport in any way to affect the phrase in Article II and in fact its principal architect, Representative Bingham, made it clear in remarks on the record that the Article II definition taken from natural law or the law of nations was not affected.

[kabar]

You are just proving my point. We are engaging in speculation, not settled law. I am sure you believe that John McCain was not a natural born citizen. I believe he is.

If you automatically become a citizen of this country by blood or place of birth and don't have to be naturalized, you are natural born IMO. The term "natural born citizen" is not used anywhere else in the Constitution, and it has never been the subject of any federal court ruling. Hence, its exact meaning could be subject to controversy.