The Titles of Nobility Amendment

The Titles of Nobility Amendment, proposed by Congress in 1810, would have stripped Americans of their citizenship if they accepted any title of nobility or honor from a foreign power without the consent of Congress. It came within a whisker of ratification, then stalled — and because it carried no deadline, it technically remains pending before the states more than two centuries later.

The proposal reflected early-republic anxiety about foreign influence and aristocracy corrupting the young democracy. The original Constitution already barred the government from granting titles of nobility; this amendment aimed to punish private citizens who accepted them from abroad. It sailed through Congress and was ratified by twelve states — one short, by most counts, of the number then needed.

The amendment then faded into obscurity, but it never entirely disappeared. In the nineteenth century it was mistakenly printed in some editions of the Constitution as though ratified, and in modern times it has been seized upon by fringe theorists — the so-called missing Thirteenth Amendment movement — who claim it was secretly adopted and would, absurdly, disqualify lawyers who use the title Esquire from holding office. Historians regard those claims as baseless. The amendment stands instead as one of a handful of proposals still, in theory, awaiting the states.