Blame Canada! Or, Calling the Chester Arthur Birthers

Barack Obama isn’t the first President to come under fire for suspicious birth certificate origins. That honor belongs to Chester Arthur — also the first President of Vermont. Take that Calvin Coolidge! Turns out, for those of you not completely up-to-date on the presidential trivia, Arthur’s actual birthplace has long been under speculation: there are rumors he may have been born in….Canada! Which, by the way, was not technically a country yet, or even actually called Canada (what are now the provinces of Ontario and Quebec were commonly referred to Upper and Lower Canada, respectively) but, in fact a British colony. Meaning if it is true that Arthur was born there, the British did indeed succeed in putting a subject in the White House, the prevention of which is the primary motivation behind of Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution. He was also a Republican (in the pre-Nixon sense). Where are our historical birthers when we need them.

Anyway! @ABCdude recently took a summer road trip to Vermont to visit Chester Arthur’s supposed birthplace, and is now worried that he may have started a constitutional controversy. Hey, it’s summer…if we can’t give you dancing former politicians of questionable ethis at least we can edify.

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