What founders meant by "natural born"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23415028/

snip

The problem arises from a phrase in the Constitution setting out who is eligible to be president. Article II, which also specifies that a person must be at least 35 years old, says "No person except a natural born Citizen" can be president.

Sen. McCain is undoubtedly a citizen. He was born on Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, and Congress has specifically provided that anyone born there of U.S. parents, as he was, is a citizen. Indeed, the general rule is that anyone born of U.S. parents outside the United States is a citizen.

But is John McCain a natural born citizen? The Constitution does not define the term further, and legal scholars say the notes of the Constitution's drafters shed little light on what they meant. It seems clear only that the founders wanted to make certain that whoever was president would be loyal to the U.S. alone and not to some other country. But the term "natural born citizen," many scholars say, was not in common use at the time the Constitution was written.

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*Rolls eyes.* I know everyone thinks they are an expert in ancient history yet do not have a crumb of perspective about the period in which they have an opinion, so let me help. The reason the founders coined the "not in common use" phrase of "natural born citizen" is that at that time they came from countries that had monarchies. When you have monarchies you also have the problem of "pretenders to the throne." These are people who pop up and claim to be heirs, just to do a power grab. Now the founders were creating a democratic republic, not a monarchy, but they were intelligent and alert to lessons learned under monarchies. They put in this phrase to prevent the production by a foreign country of an "American" in order to make a power grab for the presidency. Thus the use of the word "natural." A "natural born citizen" is a citizen who just happened to be born American, whether on American soil or not. The opposite of that, in the founders' minds, would be an American who was born to be contrived as eligible for being president as a plan or power grab. Thus if England, for example, enticed two Americans to produce a child for the sole purpose of entering that child into elections in the United States, that child would be viewed as in violation of the "natural born citizen" clause. Obviously this does not apply to John McCain or most citizens today. A little intelligent thought, people, that would be soooooo helpful.