HISTORICAL
BREAKTHROUGH - PROOF: CHESTER ARTHUR CONCEALED HE WAS A BRITISH SUBJECT
AT BIRTH
This essay will discuss the eligibility of every
President who had parents born abroad. As long as the parents had
the future President on US soil after they became citizens, then that person is
a natural born citizen.
Every President born before the adoption of the Constitution was eligible
because of the grandfather clause of Article 2, Section 1 :
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;
JAMES BUCHANAN
The first President we must examine then was James Buchanan, 14th President
of the United States. He was born on April 23, 1791 in Mercersburg,
Pennsylvania. He just missed out on the grandfather clause as the
Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
Buchanan was also the only President from Pennsylvania and the only
President never to marry.
His mother Elizabeth Speer was born in Pennsylvani. His father James
Buchanan emigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1783.
It was an interesting year for the United States as the Treaty of 1783 was
signed between the US and Great Britain. Colonists chose to be United
States citizens and by virtue of the Treaty, Great Britain recognized those
former subjects as United States citizens.
Before the Constitution, United States citizenship was conferred on
citizens by the States. When the Constitution was ratified, each
citizen of a state became a citizen of the United States. No formal
naturalization was needed.
On June 21, 1788 the Constitution was ratified. The Buchanans were citizens
of Pennsylvania and therefore James Sr. was a citizen of the
United States. When James Jr. was born in Pennsylvania he was
therefore a natural born citizen, born on United States soil to two US citizen
parents.
ANDREW JOHNSON
Johnson, our 17th President, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on
December 29, 1808. Wiki has this
on his father:
Jacob Johnson was born circa 1778. Some sources indicate that he was born
in Newcastle, England and sailed to America around 1795, but other sources
indicate that he was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and that it was his
grandfather (and possible namesake) who sailed to North America from England.
Historian Rev. Nash A. Odom writes that “In the year 1760, Peter Johnson,
migrated from Kintyre, Scotland to North Carolina with his large family and
settled in Cumberland County. The preaching instinct broke out again and
a number of the Johnsons became ministers. One was the father of Jacob Johnson,
who moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and was the father of President Andrew
Johnson.” Author Billy Kennedy writes that Jacob’s father, named Andrew, a
Presbyterian, came to North Carolina about 1750 from Mounthill, Ireland.
The weight of authority is that Jacob was born in the US. But
even if the other sources were correct, he would have been in the US for 13
years before Andrew was born. The Naturalization act of 1795 called
for a five year residence before Naturalization. The Act was modified in
1798 to a 14 year requirement, but then the Naturalization act of 1802 it was
put back to five years.
Jacob Johnson also served as a
militia Captain of Muster Division 20 and was
the city constable. I can find no allegations that Jacob wasn’t
a citizen when Andrew was born. (Jacob Johnson died from complications
caused by his heroic
saving of a friend’s life.)
Andrew
Johnson’s mother was born in North Carolina in 1782.
So, Andrew Johnson - born in North Carolina to two US citizen parents,
hence - natural born citizen.
[Chester Arthur would be next, but I shall save him for last.]
WOODROW WILSON
Born December 28, 1856 - the 28th President, born in Staunton, Virginia.
Wilson’s mother was from Carlisle, England. His father was a US
citizen from Ohio. Wilson’s mother gained US citizenship when she
married his father according to a congressional Act of
February 1855, which stated,
“any woman who might lawfully be naturalized
under existing laws, married, or shall be married to a citizen of the United
States, shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen.” [Act of February 10,
1855, 10 Stat. 604, section 2]
This was called derivative citizenship. This act was enacted in
1855. Woodrow Wilson was born in December 1856. He was born in the
US, both parents were US citizens - natural born citizen.
HERBERT HOOVER
Hoover was born in Iowa, 1874. He was the 31st President. His
father Jesse was from Ohio, a US citizen. His mother Hulda Minthorn was
from Ontario, Canada. They
were married in 1870. According to the 1855 act, which was in effect
until 1922, Hoover’s mother became a US citizen automatically when she married
Jesse.
So, Hoover was born in the US, both parents were citizens - natural born
citizen.
CHESTER ARTHUR …or the strange lies of our 21st
President
And here we have a very interesting story full of intrigue.
Arthur became President when one of his supporters shot President Garfield with
an exclamation of joy that Arthur would now be President.
More relevant to our discussion is that during his Vice-Presidential
campaign, Chester Arthur was accused by an attorney named Arthur Hinman of having
been born abroad. But there was absolutely no merit to the
charge. Hinman first accused Chester of being born in Ireland, then he
switched his claim to Canada. Hinman, a new York lawyer, wrote an
accusatory pamphlet under the heading, “How A British Subject Became A
President of the United States.”
The definitive biography on Chester Arthur is “Gentleman
Boss” by Thomas Reeves. It’s an exhaustive reference chock full of
notes. Many of the blanks in Chester Arthur’s legend were filled in by
this book which utilized interviews with family members and authentic documents
like the Arthur family Bible. It was a necessary work since old
Chester Arthur was a very wily protector of his strange history. Also, Chester
Arthur burned all of his papers. (See page 2365.)
“Gentleman Boss” establishes, on page 4,
that Chester Arthur’s father William was born in Ireland, 1796, and emigrated
to Canada in 1818 or 1819. His mother Malvina was born in Vermont and his
parents eloped to Canada in 1821. They had their first child, Regina in
Dunham, Canada on March 8, 1822.
THE MYSTERY - When was William Arthur naturalized? I don’t know. The only
reference historian I know who ventured a date said it was 1843, but that
historian also said he got that from “Gentleman Boss” and I could not find such
a reference in the book. I spent a few hours with the book today. I
examined every reference to William in the index and also went over the early
years with a microscope. No reference to the naturalization date.
FACTS
By no later than 1824, the Arthur family had moved to Burlington,
Vermont. Their second child Jane was born there on March 14,
1824. Chester Arthur was their fifth child, and he was born on
October 5, 1829. Reeves established these facts (and the correct
date of Chester Arthur’s birth) from the Arthur family
Bible.
It gets interesting here because of the Naturalization
Act of 1802. That act set the requisite of five years residence in
the United States for those who wanted to become naturalized
citizens. Doing the math, we know that William Arthur had moved to
Vermont no later than 1824. Chester was born in October 1829. So if
William had taken action on being naturalized in his first year, then he very
well could have been a US citizen when Arthur was born. William studied
law and taught school before he became a preacher in 1827, so he should have
been familiar with the process of acquiring citizenship.
CHESTER ARTHUR’S FIRST LIE
From “Gentleman
Boss”, page 5… regarding Chester’s birthday:
“…on October 5, 1829, Malvina Arthur gave birth to her fifth child.
(The traditional date 1830 is incorrect. Arthur made himself a year
younger, no doubt out of simply vanity, some time between 1870 and 1880…)”
Perhaps it was out of vanity, but perhaps he had a more sinister
motive. Reeves establishes Chester changed his date in the decade
of his most serious political career, 1770-1780. Chester was also a very
skilled New York lawyer. If he had a problem with his father’s
naturalization date, then moving back his birthday by a year might have fixed
it. We will revisit this later. Suspend judgment for now.
CHESTER ARTHUR’S SECOND LIE
And this is where our villain Hinman returns. But was he a villain to
Arthur? Hinman made a big stink in various New York publications alleging
that Chester Arthur was born abroad as a British subject, much like those who
are trying to say Obama is not a US citizen. It wasn’t true.
Chester was born in Vermont. But this scandal had the effect of
keeping public attention off of the issue of whether Chester Arthur’s father
William was a British subject which would have made Chester a British subject
“at birth” even though he was born in Vermont.
Does any of this sound familiar?
From “Gentleman
Boss”, page 202 and 203:
“…Hinman was hired, apparently by democrats, to explore rumors that Arthur
had been born in a foreign country, was not a natural-born citizen of the
United States, and was thus, by the Constitution, ineligible for the
vice-presidency. By mid-August, Hinman was claiming that Arthur was born
in Ireland and had been brought to the United States by his father when he was
fourteen. Arthur denied the charge and said that his mother was a New
Englander who had never left her native country — a statement every member of
the Arthur family knew was untrue.”
His mother had lived in Canada with her husband and had her first child
there. This was a blatant lie.
CHESTER ARTHUR’S THIRD LIE
In the the Brooklyn
Eagle newspaper, an article
interviewing Chester Arthur about Hinman’s accusations was published on
August 13, 1880. In that article, Chester
Arthur defended himself as follows:
“My father, the late Rev. William Arthur, D.D., was of Scotch blood, and
was a native of the North of Ireland. He came to this country when he was
eighteen years of age, and resided here several years before he was married.”
This was another blatant lie. His father emigrated from Ireland
to Canada at the age of 22 or 23. William Arthur didn’t come to the
United States until sometime between March 1822 - when his first child was born
in Dunham, Canada - and March 1824 - when his second child was born in
Burlington, Vermont. The youngest he could have been when he came to
Vermont was 26. So, a third blatant lie.
CONCLUSIONS
I think we’ve discovered a bit of esoteric history tonight. I’ve not
seen this analysis elsewhere.
It looks like Chester Arthur had something to hide. He burned
all of his papers (but the family Bible survived). He moved his age
back a year. I think vanity is a poor excuse. Only one
year? He lied about his mother’s time in Canada. He lied about his
father’s time in Canada.
By obscuring his parents’ past lives and time in Canada, he would have
clouded all attempts at researching when his father naturalized. Think
about the time period. He ran for Vice-President in 1880. His
father, being a law student, and moving his family to the United States, would
have probably naturalized as soon as possible. But it might not have been
soon enough to make old Chester a natural born citizen.
As discussed above, the time frame between William Arthur’s five year
residence requirement being met and the day Chester was born were probably very
close.
Then when Chester runs for VP, Hinman comes along basically demanding to
see Chester’s birth certificate to prove he was born in the United
States. This causes a minor scandal easily thwarted by Chester, because
Chester was born in Vermont…but at the same time the fake scandal provides cover
for the real scandal.
William Arthur was probably not a naturalized citizen at the time of
Chester Arthur’s birth, and therefore Chester Arthur would have been a British
subject at birth and not eligible to be Vice President or President.
Regardless, Chester Arthur lied through his teeth about his father’s
emigration to Canada and the time his mother spent there married to
William. Some sixty years later, Chester lied about all of this and
kept his candidacy on track. Back then it would have been impossible to
see through this, especially since Arthur’s father had died in 1875 as a United
States citizen. Had anybody been suspicious, Arthur having changed his
age by a year could have protected his eligibility. And without knowledge
of his father’s time in Canada, researchers in 1880 would have been hard
pressed to even know where to start.
Because Chester Arthur lied about his father, any precedent he might have
set for Obama is nullified completely as it appears Chester Arthur may have
been a usurper to the Presidency. Eventually we will probably
unearth William Arthur’s naturalization records.
While he did move around alot, he was a resident of Fairfield, Franklin
County Vermont, between 1829 when Chester was born, and 1832 when Malvina
Almeda was born. This is the most likely time period for his
naturalization. The official word from Franklin County was a fast, “We
don’t have naturalization records for William Arthur.”
I have a strong feeling we’ve uncovered the truth about Chester
Arthur. Looks like he was the only ineligible President we’ve ever
had. And he got away with it through his lies. But the light has a
way of finding the darkness.
It’s no precedent to follow.
Leo C. Donofrio
Concerned
citizen Says:
December 5, 2008 at 7:31 am
Just wanted
to let you know about a typo in the second paragraph under your analysis of
Chester Arthur: “Hoover was accused by an attorney named Arthur Hinman of
having been born abroad”. I think you meant Arthur not Hoover. You don’t have
to post this. Just wanted to let you know so you have a chance to correct it.
Thanks for very detailed information on this topic. Discussions on Chester
Arthur’s eligibility has been flying around the chat rooms for several days
now. You are a true patriot, Leo. Thank you for all you have done.
wayfaringstranger Says:
December 5, 2008 at 7:35 am
Pretty
good work in short time, once you became aware of the exceptions. Elizabeth
Speer was born in PA, though, not Ireland. Johnson’s father would have had to
take action under the 1802 Act. Unclear that he did. The mothers were always
going to be the easiest to work with. So, let me give you a new set of
precedents to look at: VP Dallas, whose father was from Jamaica; VP Humphrey,
whose mother was from Norway (but who is likely to be covered through the
marriage to an American citizen before 1922); and VP Agnew, whose father was
from Greece.
The last
of them there is not much to be done about. Charles Curtis’s mother was
ineligible to be a United States citizen, even though she married a resident of
the Territory of Kansas. Indeed, he spent many of his childhood years living
with her people.
