[DiogenesLamp]

Vattel had that idea, for SWISS law. The Founders showed no sign of sharing it.

Au contraire, mon frere. The word "citizen" was little used prior to Vattel. If you search Shakespeare for it, you find all it's references are to the inhabitants of a city. "City-Zens", as in the manner of "Denizens."

Blackstone also refers to it as the inhabitants of a city.

But Vattel used it to refer to the inhabitants of a nation, and that is whence came our modern usage of the word.

Les citoyens sont les membres de la societe civile : lies a cette societe par certains devoirs et soumis a son autorite, ils participent avec egalite a ses avantages."

Jefferson made a conscious effort to differentiate the inhabitants of our nation from their previous status as English Subjects. His own notes on the Declaration are filled with references to Vattel.

Even the kook burgers over at Dr. Conspiracy admit the Declaration is heavily based on Vattel.

And that is the document that created natural born citizens.

[Mr Rogers]

“The word “citizen” was little used prior to Vattel.”

That is OK. Vattel did not use it either. Not in the sense of NBC, since he wrote “Les Naturels ou indigenes...”

That would be “The natives or indigenes [indigenous people]” - which is how it appeared in US & English translations at the time the US Constitution was written. The natives or indigenous people are those born to citizen parents.

Notice “indigenes” is a French word taken into English, and it appears in English dictionaries even today.