The 1861 Confederate States of America Constitution Mirrors the 1787 United States of America Constitution

The 1861 Confederate States Constitution 
Mirrors the 1787 United States Constitution

A similar post was posted 02-25-2014 on Mario Apuzzo's blog on February 25, 2014 at 7:58 PM.

>> http://puzo1.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-constitution-rule-of-law-and.html?commentPage=6

<<>>

Here is a possible Article V topic. Clarify the original intent of the original birthers who wrote the Article II Section 1 Clause 5 three word unit “natural born Citizen.”

There are 2 points for clarification: #1 David Ramsay’s 1789 citizenship dissertation, and #2 the 1861 Confederate Constitution definition of “natural-born citizen” as related to the Confederate independence and naturalization date of December 20, 1860.


Point #1 – David Ramsey

From Mario's Scribd post is this quote on page 6 from David Ramsay’s 1789 ‘A Dissertation on the Manner of Acquiring the Character and Privileges of a Citizen of the United States’:

>> http://www.scribd.com/doc/33807636/A-Dissertation-on-Manner-of-Acquiring-Character-Privileges-of-Citizen-of-U-S-by-David-Ramsay-1789

“The citizenship of no man could be previous to the declaration of independence, and, as a natural right, belongs to none but those who have been born of citizens since the 4th of July, 1776.” [my emphasis]

Ramsay’s implicit point by extrapolation is that in 1787 America a “natural born Citizen” was born with two parents who were already married to each other and who became citizens by naturalization on July 4, 1776 by accepting the declaration of independence, and their child was born on the free soil of the independent ‘Union’ since (AFTER) July 4, 1776.

Also, to continue the implication, the children born BEFORE the adoption of the Federal Constitution on September 17, 1787 were “natural born” and also “citizens” because they were born with two parents who were already married to each other and who were already in 1787 U.S. citizens by 1776 independence and naturalization.


Point #2 – The Confederate Constitution’s Article II Section 1 Clause 7

First, here is the U.S. Constitution presidential eligibility clause, Article II Section 1 Clause 5:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Part #1:

1a) No Person except a natural born Citizen,

1b) or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution,

1c) shall be eligible to the Office of President;

Part #2:

2a) neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years,

2b) and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Clause 7 in the Confederate Constitution of 1861 helps to clarify the original intent of the original birthers who wrote the Federal Constitution that was ratified 73 years earlier in 1788.

See the entire “Constitution of the Confederate States of America March 11, 1861” at The Avalon Project.
>> http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp

(7) No person except a natural-born citizen of the Confederate States, or a citizen thereof at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to the 20th of December, 1860, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may exist at the time of his election.

Part #1:

1a) No person except a natural-born citizen of the Confederate States,

1b) or a citizen thereof at the time of the adoption of this Constitution,

1c) or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to the 20th of December, 1860,

1d) shall be eligible to the office of President;

Part #2:

2a) neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years,

2b) and been fourteen years a resident within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may exist at the time of his election.

The phrase in the Confederate Constitution that helps clarify the original intent of the original birthers and authors of the 1787 U.S. Federal Constitution mentions the independence and naturalization cut-off date of December 20, 1860, “… or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to the 20th of December, 1860, shall be eligible …”

If the original birthers of the 1787 U.S. Federal Constitution had included a clarifying phrase like “… or a citizen thereof born in the British America colonies prior to the 4th of July, 1776, shall be eligible …” to clarify the independence and naturalization cut-off date of July 4, 1776, the original intent of the Article II Section 1 Clause 5 three word unit “natural born Citizen” and the association with “… or a Citizen of...” would be much clearer and more obvious.

The clarity is in the historical fact that the 1787 Article II Section 1 Clause 5 three word unit “natural born Citizen” was understood by the Confederate Constitution authors 73 years later in 1861 to mean ONLY born on U.S. soil with two parents who were married to each other BEFORE the child was born, and BOTH parents were citizens of the United States of America by birth or naturalization BEFORE the child was born on U.S. soil, birth being the common sense prerequisite to residing for 14 years on U.S. soil by age 35 to be “...eligible to the Office of President.”

So, in their own Constitution, the Confederate authors obviously did NOT intend to include a Federal Constitution “Union” citizen as a “natural-born citizen” of one of the Confederate states if they had already been born on U.S. soil before December 20, 1860. The Confederate authors obviously meant that ONLY a child born on the soil of a Confederate state would be considered to be a “natural-born citizen” of the Confederacy and eligible to the presidency of the Confederacy if the “Union” born parents were already married to each other before the child is born, and if they had already accepted the Confederate Constitution independence and naturalization cut-off date of December 20, 1860.

There was no debate about the meaning of “natural born Citizen” by either the 1787 Federal Constitution original birthers who wrote the original Article II Section 1 Clause 5 three word unit “natural born Citizen” with the original intent of referring ONLY to birth to parents who were BOTH U.S. citizens and married to each other BEFORE the child is born to them on U.S. soil, nor was there debate by the 1861 Confederate Constitution authors because they agreed with the 1787 “original birthers” when the 1861 Confederate Constitution authors wrote the Article II Section 1 Clause 7 three word unit “natural-born citizen.”

To the authors of the 1861 Confederate Constitution “natural-born citizen” meant the SAME thing that “natural born Citizen” meant to the 1787 Federal Constitution original birthers and authors—it meant ONLY birth of the child on U.S. soil with two U.S. Citizen married parents who were married to each other BEFORE their child was born, and the positive law requirement of 14 year residence on U.S. soil by age 35.

While we don’t know explicitly why the Confederate Constitution authors included in their constitution the independence and naturalization cut-off date of December 20, 1860, they probably had Vattel’s Law of Nations § 214 and David Ramsay’s 1789 (72 year old in 1861) Dissertation on citizenship in front of them, so the Confederates made the obvious connection and explicitly stated their confederacy naturalization cut-off date was their independence date of December 20, 1860, using as a model the July 4, 1776 war for independence by the British America colonies and the naturalization cut-off date also on July 4, 1776.

The Confederate Constitution grandfather phrase “… or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to the 20th of December, 1860, shall be eligible …” with the independence and naturalization cut-off date of December 20, 1860 helps students of the U.S. Constitution, that was ratified 73 years earlier in 1788, to understand the original intent of the original birthers who did not insert their own independence and naturalization cut-off date of July 4, 1776 into Article II Section 1 Clause 5.

Maybe something can be accomplished to clarify Article II Section 1 Clause 5 with an Article V proposal to amend the U.S. constitution when “… the Legislatures … of … States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, ….”