Gifts from Foreign Governments

                    The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday comes from Article I, Section 9, Clause 8:  "… And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them [United States], 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."  This provision in the Constitution provides us with assurance that our elected officials will do the job we have given them without being "bought" by gifts from foreign nations.

                    "The Founders were anxious that the wealth of European nations would not be used to compromise the loyalties of American officials.  It is said that a gift from the king of France to the American ambassador during the Revolutionary War aroused sufficient concern to have this provision inserted in the Constitution….

                    "The Founders left no doubt as to their intention when they incorporated this provision into the Constitution."  (See W. Cleon Skousen, The Making of America - The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, 487.)

                    Robert Delahunty further explained the importance of the Emoluments Clause:  "Like several other provisions of the Constitution, the Emoluments Clause also embodies the memory of the epochal constitutional struggles in seventeenth-century Britain between the forces of Parliament and the Stuart dynasty.  St. George Tucker's explanation of the clause noted that `in the reign of Charles the [S]econd of England, that prince, and almost all his officers of state were either actual pensioners of the court of France, or supposed to be under its influence, directly, or indirectly, from that cause.  The reign of that monarch has been, accordingly, proverbially disgraceful to his memory.'  As these remarks imply, the clause was directed not merely at American diplomats serving abroad, but more generally at officials throughout the federal government.

                    "The Emoluments Clause has apparently never been litigated, but it has been interpreted and enforced through a long series of opinions of the Attorneys General and by less-frequent opinions of the Comptrollers General.  Congress has also exercised its power of "Consent" under the clause by enacting the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, which authorizes federal employees to accept foreign governmental benefits of various kinds in specific circumstances" (The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, 167).

                    I believe that it is obvious why our elected leaders and other federal workers should not receive emoluments from foreign governments, but I want to make sure you see the reason.  We want our elected representatives and those they appoint to positions to be loyal to the United States and protect the rights of Americans!  We must continue to insist that our officials be true to our Constitution and nation.