The Misunderstood Titles of Nobility Amendment
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1788908 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1788908 2010J THE "ORTGTNAI." THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT 313 If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.2 Obviously, this Thirteenth Amendment is nothing like the Thirteenth Amendment that has been part of our Constitution since 1865.3 However, unlike a modern individual, who would be utterly shocked to find this strange Thirteenth Amendment printed in his or her Constitution, Edwards was not surprised at all-quite the contrary actually. The official Statutes at Large, many official state codes, and a growing number of school textbooks recorded this Amendment, modernly called the Titles of Nobility Amendment (ToNA),4 as the 2. 2 Stat. 613 (1810); see also 2 lJOClJMENTARY HISTORY OFTJJL CONSTITlJ l"JON, 1786-- 1870, at 452-53 (Washington, Dept. of State 1894) (reprinting the version of the Titles of Nobility Amendment that was transmitted to the states and certified by both houses of Congress); 1 LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1789-1815, al 74 (photo. reprint 1989) (1815). 3. Compare supra note 2 and accompanying text, with U.S. CONST. amend. XIII.
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