What’s TONA?

Titles of Nobility Amendment.

AKA: The Original 13th Amendment

The story goes (and there was a very prominent US senator who investigated this and claims he verified it) ...

Sometime around 1810, Congress passed a 13th Amendment (there were 12 at the time, as this was long before the "civil war"). There is no doubt they passed it; the only question is whether or not it was properly ratified.

It said:

If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain, any title of nobility or honour, 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.

This amendment started appearing in copies of the Constitution in law books in the 1820's or so. But then it started disappearing in the 1840's.

The War of 1812 is said to have destroyed a lot of documents, including original records of this.

Very suspect.

But nobody can really prove it.

Some people claim this amendment means that attorneys, being members of the BAR (British Accreditation Registry) would be stripped of US citizenship, as well as other presidents and members of Congress.

Of course, it says "without the consent of Congress," so you know that is a HUGE loophole, so it is an interesting factoid of history, but doesn't mean much -- other than possibly some pricks changed the Constitution without our consent.

What’s TONA?

Titles of Nobility Amendment.

AKA: The Original 13th Amendment

The story goes (and there was a very prominent US senator who investigated this and claims he verified it) ...

Sometime around 1810, Congress passed a 13th Amendment (there were 12 at the time, as this was long before the "civil war"). There is no doubt they passed it; the only question is whether or not it was properly ratified.

It said:

If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain, any title of nobility or honour, 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.

This amendment started appearing in copies of the Constitution in law books in the 1820's or so. But then it started disappearing in the 1840's.

The War of 1812 is said to have destroyed a lot of documents, including original records of this.

Very suspect.

But nobody can really prove it.

Some people claim this amendment means that attorneys, being members of the BAR (British Accreditation Register) would b stripped of US citizenship, as well as other presidents and members of Congress.

Of course, it says "without the consent of Congress," so you know that is a HUGE loophole, so it is an interesting factoid of history, but doesn't mean much -- other than possibly some pricks changed the Constitution without our consent.