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The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth on Natural Born Citizen - ARTICLE II
THE CONSTITUTION, VATTEL, AND "NATURAL BORN CITIZEN"
Publius Huldah
July 18, 2012
Excerpt:
"We have been visited recently with several very silly articles which assert that Marco
Rubio is a “natural born Citizen” within the meaning of Art. II, §1, cl. 5, U.S.
Constitution (ratified 1789), and hence is qualified to be President:
Bret Baier (Fox News) asserts that Congress can define (and presumably redefine, from
time to time) terms in the Constitution by means of law.
Chet Arthur in American Thinker quips that “the original meaning of ‘natural born
citizen’” is determined by reference to “The Heritage Guide to the Constitution” and to
the definition of “citizen” at Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment, ratified 1868.
Human Events claims that anyone born within The United States is a “natural born
citizen” eligible to be President.
Jake Walker at Red State purports to show how the term has been used from 1795 to the
present. After quoting James Madison on the citizenship requirements imposed by Art.
I, §2, cl. 2, to be a member of the House, Walker gleefully quotes a 1795 discussion of
“natural born subject” to “prove” that anyone born here is a “natural born citizen”:
“It is an established maxim, received by all political writers, that every person owes a
natural allegiance to the government of that country in which he is born. Allegiance is
defined to be a tie, that binds the subject to the state, and in consequence of his
obedience, he is entitled to protection…” [emphasis mine]
“The children of aliens, born in this state, are considered as natural born subjects,
and have the same rights with the rest of the citizens.” [emphasis mine]
But “subjects” are not “citizens”; and we fought a war so that we could be transformed
from “subjects of the British Crown” to Citizens of a Republic!
The four writers don’t know what they are talking about. But I will tell you the Truth and
prove it. We first address Word Definitions.
Word Definitions:
Like clouds, word meanings change throughout time. “Awful” once meant “full of
wonder and reverence”; “cute” meant “bowlegged”; “gay” meant “jovial”; and “nice”
meant “precise”. Accordingly, if someone from an earlier time wrote of a “cute gay man”,
he was not referring to an adorable homosexual, but to a cheerful bowlegged man.
So! In order to understand the genuine meaning of a text, we must use the definitions
the authors used when they wrote it. Otherwise, written texts become as shifting and
impermanent as the clouds – blown hither and yon throughout the years by those who
unthinkingly read in their own uninformed understandings, or deliberately pervert the
text to further their own agenda."
.................................
View the complete post at:
http://api.ning.com/files/0cm0HDeFMg...ornCitizen.pdf
THE CONSTITUTION, VATTEL, AND "NATURAL BORN CITIZEN"
Publius Huldah
July 18, 2012
Excerpt:
"We have been visited recently with several very silly articles which assert that Marco
Rubio is a “natural born Citizen” within the meaning of Art. II, §1, cl. 5, U.S.
Constitution (ratified 1789), and hence is qualified to be President:
Bret Baier (Fox News) asserts that Congress can define (and presumably redefine, from
time to time) terms in the Constitution by means of law.
Chet Arthur in American Thinker quips that “the original meaning of ‘natural born
citizen’” is determined by reference to “The Heritage Guide to the Constitution” and to
the definition of “citizen” at Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment, ratified 1868.
Human Events claims that anyone born within The United States is a “natural born
citizen” eligible to be President.
Jake Walker at Red State purports to show how the term has been used from 1795 to the
present. After quoting James Madison on the citizenship requirements imposed by Art.
I, §2, cl. 2, to be a member of the House, Walker gleefully quotes a 1795 discussion of
“natural born subject” to “prove” that anyone born here is a “natural born citizen”:
“It is an established maxim, received by all political writers, that every person owes a
natural allegiance to the government of that country in which he is born. Allegiance is
defined to be a tie, that binds the subject to the state, and in consequence of his
obedience, he is entitled to protection…” [emphasis mine]
“The children of aliens, born in this state, are considered as natural born subjects,
and have the same rights with the rest of the citizens.” [emphasis mine]
But “subjects” are not “citizens”; and we fought a war so that we could be transformed
from “subjects of the British Crown” to Citizens of a Republic!
The four writers don’t know what they are talking about. But I will tell you the Truth and
prove it. We first address Word Definitions.
Word Definitions:
Like clouds, word meanings change throughout time. “Awful” once meant “full of
wonder and reverence”; “cute” meant “bowlegged”; “gay” meant “jovial”; and “nice”
meant “precise”. Accordingly, if someone from an earlier time wrote of a “cute gay man”,
he was not referring to an adorable homosexual, but to a cheerful bowlegged man.
So! In order to understand the genuine meaning of a text, we must use the definitions
the authors used when they wrote it. Otherwise, written texts become as shifting and
impermanent as the clouds – blown hither and yon throughout the years by those who
unthinkingly read in their own uninformed understandings, or deliberately pervert the
text to further their own agenda."
.................................
View the complete post at:
http://api.ning.com/files/0cm0HDeFMg...ornCitizen.pdf