Topic: things you think about when your bord

[Khalee1]

now in 1789 America became a official country after the Constition was finally ratified.

I got to wondering who were the first real citizens of this country, you know the babies that were born on that day or even the day after, would probably be hard if not imposable to find out, but it is somthing I was thinking about.

Or who would you consider a first citizen of a new country. The people that are there allready or those that are born after the fact.

[J. Carney]

Or who would you consider a first citizen of a new country. The people that are there allready or those that are born after the fact.

I'd consider anyone that fought in the US Military in the Revolutionary War an 'original naturalized citizen', and thus by virtue of that, their spouses as well. Their children would be the first generation of 'natural-born citizens.'

Anyone that didn't fight in the War, I would consider them a 'resident' but not a 'citizen'... basically, they were legal aliens. Their kids, however, were natural-born citizens according to our rather lenient immigration laws.

[Just plain old Punisher]

I think anyone living in the country at the time of the ratification of the consitution was automatically a legal citizen (With exception to the slaves).

It's not like we had established quotas or even an INS back then. We were a huge country with only, what, 9-10 million people? I would think that anyone would be welcome to come over.