A Legal Precedent For A More Equitable Society
By Edward Campbell for Op-Ed News. Article One sections 9 and 10 of the Constitution forbids the grant of any "Titles of Nobility". In promoting the adoption of the Constitution of the United States of America, Alexander Hamilton named these Article One clauses the "Cornerstone of Republican Government". He went on to observe that as long as "titles of nobility" were excluded, there could never be a serious danger that the government will be any other than that of the people. "Titles of Nobility" were terms familiar in the language of the times indicating social and economic superiority and political power. The Nobility restrictions referred to equality. In the words of the early Constitutional Scholar, Joseph Story, born towards the end of the Revolution (1779) and a member of the Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845, that as perfect equality is the basis of all our institutions, state and national, the prohibition against the creation of any title of nobility seems proper, if not indispensable, to keep perpetually alive a just sense of this important truth.