# Was there another president who was not legally president? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 7, 2000, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-another-president-who-was-not-legally-president/40065 "2000-11-07T04:08:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BFavre4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@BFavre4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BFavre4)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-another-president-who-was-not-legally-president/40065/1 "2000-11-07T04:08:30Z")
I heard somewhere that there was another president of the usa who supposidly was not legally president. I dont know who it was though. To my recallection, I think that the president was from the state of ohio. The controversey starts about when this president was elected to office, it was discovered that he was born in a state that had not yet been admitted to the union. But when he was elected, the state had been admitted, so nobody noticed…Or so i recall. If it helps, I think that it may have been Grover Cleveland, or one of the Roosevelts. But Im not too sure. Can someone confirm this? If you are interested, please reply! This one is really starting to bother me!!! I cant remember where i heard it but Im pretty sure there is a controversy like this. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-another-president-who-was-not-legally-president/40065/2 "2000-11-07T04:40:46Z")
Chester A. Arthur’s opponents claimed that he was actually born across the line in Canada, instead of Vermont. Don’t know about any others. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-another-president-who-was-not-legally-president/40065/3 "2000-11-07T04:45:09Z")
It sounds like you’re referring to something covered in this column by Cecil: [Is U.S. income tax invalid because Ohio wasn’t legally a state when the 16th amendment was ratified?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_127.html): > [@](#): > > It all started when Ohio was preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its admission to the Union in 1953. Researchers looking for the original statehood documents discovered there’d been a little oversight. While Congress had approved Ohio’s boundaries and constitution, it had never passed a resolution formally admitting the future land of the Buckeyes. Technically, therefore, Ohio was not a state…OK, said the resisters, but the proposed amendment had been introduced to Congress by the administration of William H. Taft. Taft had been born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1857. The Constitution requires that presidents be natural-born citizens of the United States. Since Ohio was not a state in 1857, Taft was not a natural-born citizen, could not legally be president, and could not legally introduce the 16th Amendment…Persons born in U.S. territories–not just in states–are U.S. citizens. (For example, Puerto Rico.) So Taft was a natural-born citizen and could legally serve as president. By the way, the place for questions like this would be [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3) in the General Questions forum. If you look at the [main page](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/) you’ll see little thumbnail descriptions of the purpose of each forum and the type of posts appropriate for each one.