There are three forms of American citizenship. Citizens are those native born in America. Naturalized citizens are those not native born but made a citizen by laws of the several states prior to ratification of the Constitution on June 21, 1788, and thereafter by naturalization laws written in Congress. Natural born citizens are those born in America of American citizen parents.
Each form of citizenship existed, just as the nation it self existed, before ratification. One would be mistaken to ascribe any credibility to the false notion that naturalization laws created after ratification, were retroactively applicable to American born citizens of the original several states, wherein by means of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolutionary War, culminating in a mutual agreement set forth in the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783, and in particular by Article 1, they became free sovereign and independent states. These acts, first forcefully then followed by mutual legal agreement bound by treaty, forever severed any and all allegiance owed to the King by British natural born subjects who were American born in the several states; thereafter each being a free and sovereign citizen of their respective state and concomitantly also a citizen of the United States of America.
Emigrated British subjects became citizens by any existing state naturalization laws. Following the severance of all allegiances to the King, being citizens, they were similarly free from the ties that bind British natural born subjects to the King. Furthermore, had an emigrated subject not been naturalized by state law, they certainly became U.S. citizens with no formal naturalization being necessary, upon the June 21, 1788 ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
Complete severance of all allegiances to the British King is further confirmed by the War of 1812, fought in large part to stop the frequent interception of American ships by the British to forcefully impress American citizens into the British navy, based on renewed claims of allegiance owed to the King, to meet their need for sailors during the Napoleonic Wars. The most famous case involved the H.M.S. Leopard firing upon and boarding the U.S. Frigate Chesapeake on June 22, 1807. Following this highly provocative incident, the Chesapeake was refitted for war and on June 1, 1813 engaged the H.M.S. Shannon near Boston Harbor, where Captain James Lawrence, though mortally wounded, issued the famous command “Don’t give up the ship!”
Submitted in support and defense of the United States Constitution.
Duty, Honor, Country.
Respectfully,
A U.S. vet
References:
Paris Peace Treaty of 1783
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/paris/
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