<P> U.S. Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont, however, shared Edward Bates' opinion that those born in the country of alien parents and who reside elsewhere are still considered citizens, and he added that they should be entitled to be president of the United States, if elected . In 1875 Pierrepont was presented with a query from the Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish . A young man, named Arthur Steinkauler, had been born in Missouri in 1855, a year after his father was naturalized a U.S. citizen . When he was four years old, his father returned to Germany with him and both had stayed there ever since . The father had relinquished his U.S. citizenship and the young man was now 20 years old and about to be drafted into the Imperial German army . The question was asked "What was this young man's situation as a native - born American citizen?" After studying the relevant legal authorities, Pierrepont wrote: </P> <P> Under the treaty (of 1868 with Germany), and in harmony with American doctrine, it is clear that Steinkauler the father abandoned his naturalization in America and became a German subject (his son being yet a minor), and that by virtue of German laws the son acquired German nationality . It is equally clear that the son, by birth, has American nationality, and hence he has two nationalities, one natural, the other acquired...Young Steinkauler is a native - born American citizen . There is no law of the United States under which his father or any other person can deprive him of his birthright . He can return to America at the age of 21, and in due time, if the people elect, he can become President of the United States...I am of opinion that when he reaches the age of 21 years he can then elect whether he will return and take the nationality of his birth, with its duties and privileges, or retain the nationality acquired by the act of his father . </P> <P> Frederick van Dyne, the Assistant Solicitor of the U.S. Department of State (1900--1907) indicated that children of citizens born outside the United States are also considered citizens . In 1904, he published a textbook, Citizenship of the United States, in which he wrote: </P> <P> There is no uniform rule of international law covering the subject of citizenship . Every nation determines for itself who shall, and who shall not, be its citizens...By the law of the United States, citizenship depends, generally, on the place of birth; nevertheless the children of citizens, born out of the jurisdiction of the United States, are also citizens...The Constitution of the United States, while it recognized citizenship of the United States in prescribing the qualifications of the President, Senators, and Representatives, contained no definition of citizenship until the adoption of the 14th Amendment, in 1868; nor did Congress attempt to define it until the passage of the civil rights act, in 1866...Prior to this time the subject of citizenship by birth was generally held to be regulated by the common law, by which all persons born within the limits and allegiance of the United States were deemed natural - born citizens . It appears to have been assumed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Murray v . The Charming Betsy (1804) 2 Cranch (6 U.S.) 64, 119, 2 L. Ed . 208, 226, that all persons born in the United States were citizens thereof...In M'Creery v. Somerville (1824) 9 Wheat . (22 U.S.) 354, 6 L. Ed . 109, which concerned the title to land in the state of Maryland, it was assumed that children born in that state to an alien were native - born citizens of the United States...The Federal courts have almost uniformly held that birth in the United States, of itself, confers citizenship . </P>

So you have to be born in america to be president