No Titles of Nobility

                    The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday comes from Article I, Section 9, Clause 8:  "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States…."  This clause in the Constitution guaranteed that the government would not bestow aristocratic titles or create a titled class in the United States.

                    The Founders were determined that their new society would not be divided into classes.  "This provision is almost identical with the one which appears in the Articles of Confederation (Article VI).  It was designed to prevent the division of the people into upper and lower classes, and to prevent officers or persons of prominence in the United States form coming under the influence of foreign powers through titles or gifts.  When Lord Baltimore received his charter for Maryland in 1632 it authorized him to grant titles of nobility.  One or two other colonial charters granted this same authority.  The Founders were anxious to wipe out the possibility of a peerage class being developed during the coming generation.

                    "The ranks of nobility in England were those of a duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron.  There were to be no such ranks among the people of the United States."  (See W. Cleon Skousen, The Making of America - The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, 486.)

                    This part of what is called the Emoluments Clause shows the greatness of the men who founded our nation.  Among the group of men who wrote our Constitution, there was enough education, experience, knowledge, and wisdom that they tried to look down the corridors of time and solve as many future problems as possible.  They realized the damage that could come to this new nation if the people became divided by titles.

                    "Article VI of the Articles of Confederation was the source of the Constitution's prohibition on federal titles of nobility and the so-called Emoluments Clause.  The clause sought to shield the republican character of the United States against corrupting foreign influences.

                    "The prohibition on federal titles of nobility - reinforced by the corresponding prohibition on state titles of nobility … was designed to underpin the republican character of the American government.  In the ample sense James Madison gave the term in The Federalist No. 39, a republic was `a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during good behavior.'"  (See Robert Delahunty, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, 166.)

                    This clause protects the American people and their republican government.  Along with other clauses, it helps to insure that the government will be "of the people, by the people, and for the people."