P&E comment:
P&E: nbC Comment Merits Response:Joe Leland* wrote:In the beginning of the same paragraph, Rep. Bingham says,'DeMaio' wrote:On April 11, 1862 …Bingham rose on the House floor in support of such a proposed amendment. … “all other persons born within the Republic, of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty, are natural-born citizens.Does the author agree with Congressman Bingham that “citizens by birth” are natural-born citizens?Bingham wrote:The Constitution leaves no room for doubt about this subject. The word ‘natural-born citizen of the United States’ occur in it, and the other provision also occurs in it that ‘Congress shall have power to pass a uniform system of naturalization.’ To naturalize a person is to admit him to citizenship. Who are natural-born citizens but those born within the Republic? Those born within the Republic, whether black or white, are citizens by birth – natural-born citizens.
Good thing the U.S. Constitution is governed exclusively by what Bingham (who was not a Framer of the U.S. Constitution) believes.'DeMaio' wrote:The answer is: “As the question is posed, no, but with explanatory qualifications.”
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In order to reconcile what might be seen as (or suggested to be) an inconsistency between Congressman Bingham’s statements as noted in the comment and as set out in your servant’s post, one needs to read the entire paragraph containing his remarks. Specifically, after first stating that “[t]hose born within the Republic, whether black or white, are citizens by birth – natural-born citizens…,” Bingham thereafter added that the term nbC meant that, whether black or white, the person had to have been born to “parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty….” Clearly, when he referred to a “citizen by birth” as being an nbC, it was conditioned by a recognition that the nbC was a person born here to parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty: two U.S. citizen parents.
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Bingham believed – correctly – that an nbC was a person born here to two U.S. citizen parents who possessed undivided allegiance to the United States alone. While the 14th Amendment affects all “citizens,” including nbC’s, it neither creates nbC’s nor does it alter the definition or meaning of the term as understood by Congressman John Bingham or as the Founders intended when they adopted it in Art. 2, § 1, Cl. 5 of the Constitution.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
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