XXI. Titles, Gifts, Treason

Prohibition Of Titles And Foreign Gifts—Treason, Its Trial And Punishment

America is a democracy. It was the plan from the beginning that it always should be a democracy. The human race had suffered much from royalty, from kings and emperors, and queens and princes. Human nature is weak. We are all more or less attracted by people with titles. Story books which we read in childhood exalt the “lords” and “ladies” and “princes”, and I regret to say that the history of lords and ladies and princes does not always justify the pictures which our story books would paint for us.

The men who framed the Constitution had just finished a life and death struggle with royalty—a struggle between the people and a king, and the people had won. They were determined that the blighting influence of royal power should never again find a place on American soil. Therefore they put into the Constitution:

“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”[88]