Who else would dare? Publius was one of the widely known writers of the Federalist Papers. Hamilton was dead, John Jay was retired, (and he didn't write much after his head injury from the Doctors riot.) Madison was the only one left, and the letter follows the official US Government position perfectly. The letter writer also make a point to mention that South Carolina did not have a citizenship law, something that Madison mentioned some years earlier when defending Mr. Smith.
I think you are quaking in your boots for fear that the letter writer is very much indeed, James Madison.
Bottom line: James McClure was found to be a US citizen based on his birth in the US. And that is consistent with US law from before there was a US:
That is a blatant lie. He was found to be a US citizen ONLY after proof (beyond being born in South Carolina which was the proof already presented to Ambassador Armstrong, and was deemed insufficient.) was provided from South Carolina.
You are just refusing to accept the fact that proof of birth in South Carolina WAS REJECTED as proof of American Citizenship.
“It thus clearly appears that, by the law of England for the last three centuries, beginning before the settlement of this country and continuing to the present day, aliens, while residing in the dominions possessed by the Crown of England, were within the allegiance, the obedience, the faith or loyalty, the protection, the power, the jurisdiction of the English Sovereign, and therefore every child born in England of alien parents was a natural-born subject unless the child of an ambassador or other diplomatic agent of a foreign State or of an alien enemy in hostile occupation of the place where the child was born.
The law also goes on to say that you shall have perpetual allegiance to the King, and that you are required by law to pay tithes to the Anglican Church. The point, which you are too stubborn to realize, is we threw off the laws of English Subjectude, and replaced them with new laws on American Citizenship. We specifically and intentionally eschewed the term "Subject", and replaced it with the far less known, and much less commonly used word (for that time period) "Citizen."
III. The same rule was in force in all the English Colonies upon this continent down to the time of the Declaration of Independence, and in the United States afterwards, and continued to prevail under the Constitution as originally established.”
Madison disagrees with you.
“What can he mean by saying that the Common law is not secured by the new Constitution, though it has been adopted by the State Constitutions. The common law is nothing more than the unwritten law, and is left by all the constitutions equally liable to legislative alterations. I am not sure that any notice is particularly taken of it in the Constitutions of the States. If there is, nothing more is provided than a general declaration that it shall continue along with other branches of law to be in force till legally changed.What could the Convention have done? If they had in general terms declared the Common law to be in force, they would have broken in upon the legal Code of every State in the most material points: they wd. have done more, they would have brought over from G.B. a thousand heterogeneous & antirepublican doctrines, and even the ecclesiastical Hierarchy itself, for that is a part of the Common law. If they had undertaken a discrimination, they must have formed a digest of laws, instead of a Constitution.”
Letter to Geo Washington October 18, 1787
““Sir I have the honor to enclose several affidavits and certificates just handed to me by Mr. Cheves the Representative in Congress from the City of Charleston proving that James McClure now detained in France as a British Prisoner of War was born in Charleston since the Revolution. To these Papers is annexed a Certificate of W[illiam] Johnson Esq. one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States before whom the affidavits were taken stating “that agreeable to the laws and usage of the United States, the said affidavits and Certificates are sufficient to establish the fact that James M McClure above named is a Citizen of the United States.” As such he must be considered by this Government. You will therefore interpose your good offices in his behalf and obtain his release from confinement as soon as possible.
I have [the honor] James Monroe”
Pretty odd of me quoting a letter instead of trying to invent a reason...I'll never make a birther if I simply state the facts!
"Who else would dare?"
Anyone? Remember, it was Madison who argued:
"“It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. Birth however derives its force sometimes from place and sometimes from parentage, but in general place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States; it will therefore be unnecessary to investigate any other.”