nth HUNDRED YEARS' PEACE. Ito THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR.")
Sra,—In your comments on my letter regarding "The Hundred Years' Peace," which you were kind enough to publish last week, you suggest that n person may be a natural- born American citizen though not born on American soil, and I find that you are quite right. However, the question as to the definition of a natural citizen as defined in the American Constitution has long been a moot point, the vagueness of which probably prevented Speaker Crisp at one time from receiving the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. On refreshing my memory I find that George Washington could have become President if he had been born abroad, as the Constitution provided that anyone qualified as a citizen at the time of the adoption of the document could bold the office. Later, however, the failure definitely to describe a natural- born citizen kept Crisp from aspiring to the Presidency, because he was born of American citizens residing abroad. Within the past few years an executive order has been issued through the State Department declaring that any child born of American parents residing abroad is a natural-born citizen, providing his parents have registered their intention to preserve their citizenship at the nearest Embassy or Consulate. If you will permit a personal note, I may say that I have enlisted my son, born in London, in the army of Presidential aspirants by complying with this formality. But there can be no dispute as to Washington's claims to natural citizenship, since both he and his father were born in Virginia.—I am, Sir, &O., AMERICAN RESIDENT.
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