# Original Presidents and "Natural Born Citizen" Requirement **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099 "2011-04-29T01:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/1 "2011-04-29T01:06:27Z")
With all the birther conspiratoring, I was wondering how this was handled early on, with the original few presidents. Now, obviously it HAD to be handled, or we would have had to wait 35 years to actually have a meaningful executive branch. Were all people in the US at the time of ratification automagically made natural citizens? Some other criteria? I’m curious how we handled this, unless it was just a case of “don’t ask questions” and “well… nobody exactly complained.” ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/2 "2011-04-29T01:13:04Z")
Here is the requirement (Article 2, Section something): “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.” So everyone who was a citizen at independence was fine. The natural-born requirement didn’t kick in till later. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/3 "2011-04-29T01:13:40Z")
The Constitution requires that the President either be a natural-born citizen, or have been a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. Is this not covered in elementary schools any more? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/4 "2011-04-29T01:16:12Z")
Actually, I just forgot. We did, indeed, learn that in, oh… 5th grade, 8th grade, AP US History, AP US Government… etc. I’m just dumb, nothing to see here, move along. ---
**Author:** ![Frisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Frisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frisco)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/5 "2011-04-29T01:19:33Z")
It required time travel. Pretty sure that was it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/6 "2011-04-29T02:07:28Z")
In any case, most leading politicians in the early years of the Republic had been born within the 13 colonies. The major exception was Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the West Indies, but even he would have been a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution and thus eligible. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/7 "2011-04-29T02:29:06Z")
Andrew Jackson had his birthers too. Some people claimed he was born before his parents immigrated here. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-presidents-and-natural-born-citizen-requirement/580099/8 "2011-04-29T05:05:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In any case, most leading politicians in the early years of the Republic had been born within the 13 colonies. The major exception was Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the West Indies, but even he would have been a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution and thus eligible. That’s total Final Jeopardy bait.