Saturday, October 17, 2009

And "Born" Was Underlined

The utmost concern of the Founders of our constitution was freedom from foreign influence upon the administration of our government. The first 4 Federalist Papers were written on the subject of “Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence.”

It is noteworthy that during the debates of the constitutional conventions Madison and Hamilton did not initially show a whole lot of concern for the NBC issue as they had not yet decided to place the power of the commander-in-chief of our armed forces (army then) in the executive branch. The debate continued on who would be the commander-in-chief and that’s when John Jay wrote to George Washington and declared:

“Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government ; and to declare expressly that the command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on any but a natural born citizen.”