By Stanley Ivan Evans
(©2025, All Rights Reserved)
Introduction
In January 1814, Secretary of State James Monroe issued a circular to the United States’ foreign ministers announcing that the Titles of Nobility and Honor Amendment — now known as the Titles of Nobility Amendment (TONA) — had been adopted. This declaration was not speculative; it was the official statement of the Executive Branch of the United States that the states had ratified the amendment proposed by Congress on May 1, 1810. Monroe’s circular carried the full authority of the Department of State and was issued only after receiving confirmations from state governors, including Connecticut’s certified ratification dated June 2, 1813.
And yet, only four years later, in 1818, Monroe’s administration quietly accepted a new and falsified certificate from Connecticut, reversing the historical record to claim that the state had not ratified the amendment. This paradox — the Executive Branch both acknowledging and then ignoring adoption — lies at the heart of one of the most consequential constitutional mysteries in American history.
The Connecticut Ratification of 1813
Connecticut’s own House and Senate Journals from May 1813 clearly record that both chambers concurred in ratifying the Titles of Nobility Amendment. Governor John Cotton Smith, acting under legislative order, transmitted the certification to Washington on June 2, 1813. His letter explicitly states, “By direction of the legislature of this state…”, confirming that both houses had passed the resolution of assent.
The State Department received that document, recorded it, and incorporated Connecticut among the ratifying states. This tally — along with subsequent ratifications from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and others — brought the count to thirteen, meeting the constitutional threshold required under Article V at the time (three-fourths of seventeen states). That is why Monroe’s January 12, 1814 circular declared the amendment “adopted” and why later correspondence, including the October 20, 1816 Forbes letter, reaffirmed the same number.
The 1818 Forgeries and Political Reversal
Between 1814 and 1818, the geopolitical landscape shifted dramatically. The War of 1812 ended, the Federalist Party collapsed, and Monroe’s “Era of Good Feelings” sought to heal sectional divisions. In Connecticut, Federalists lost control, and a new state constitution was drafted in 1818 — replacing the colonial charter and reconstituting much of the government’s recordkeeping.
During this transitional chaos, a new “committee report” appeared in the Connecticut archives. Its text was rewritten to say it was “not expedient to ratify” the amendment, and the signature of committee chairman Theodore Dwight was forged. This altered report then became the basis for a false certificate transmitted to Washington later that year. That document directly contradicted the original 1813 certification on file in the Department of State.
By all evidence — ink composition, handwriting analysis, and historical context — the 1818 certificate was created after the war to erase Connecticut’s earlier ratification and shield prominent Federalist lawyers and judges (many of whom held foreign honors or titles of order) from potential disqualification under TONA.
Monroe’s Calculated Silence
Faced with this contradiction, President Monroe had three options:
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Reject the falsified certificate and reaffirm that TONA was already law;
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Reopen the state tallies, demanding further confirmations; or
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Quietly accept the altered record and let the issue fade.
He chose the third — an act of political calculation, not ignorance.
By 1818, Monroe was presiding over a fragile post-war nation. Reviving a constitutional controversy that could disqualify members of Congress, lawyers, and even Supreme Court justices would have risked a national crisis. The Titles of Nobility Amendment was, after all, a direct threat to anyone who had accepted foreign emoluments, pensions, or titles of honor. Enforcing it in 1818 would have swept away much of the governing class.
So Monroe — perhaps under pressure from his cabinet, perhaps acting on his own — allowed the 1818 Connecticut certificate to be quietly entered into the federal files without official comment or publication. He neither affirmed nor denied its validity, effectively allowing the forged “non-ratification” to eclipse the true record of ratification already held by his department.
Why the Amendment Remained Law
Despite this administrative sleight of hand, no official repeal or rescission of the amendment ever occurred. Under Article V, once an amendment is adopted by the requisite number of states and recognized by the Executive Branch, it becomes part of the Constitution automatically.
In Leser v. Garnett (1922), the Supreme Court reaffirmed that once the Secretary of State declares an amendment adopted, it is “conclusive upon the courts.” That principle traces directly to Monroe’s own 1814 circular. The later filing of falsified or contradictory state documents cannot undo a completed constitutional act. No President, Congress, or state can retroactively “un-ratify” an amendment after it has entered the Constitution’s fabric.
Thus, even though Monroe permitted Connecticut’s falsified record to be filed, the Titles of Nobility Amendment remained legally valid — as adopted in 1810–1813 and recognized by the Executive Branch in 1814. What changed was not the law, but the historical narrative, suppressed through bureaucratic omission and political convenience.
Conclusion: The Amendment That Never Went Away
President Monroe’s decision in 1818 reflected a common political instinct — to preserve order at the expense of truth. But history records that the Titles of Nobility Amendment had already crossed the constitutional finish line years earlier. Its disappearance from later publications was not a repeal but a redaction — a quiet rewriting of history to protect those who might have fallen under its penalties.
The amendment, properly ratified and duly announced, has never been lawfully removed from the Constitution. Its words — prohibiting American officials from accepting foreign honors or emoluments — still stand as a safeguard of sovereignty, awaiting the day the United States once again acknowledges what its own records once proclaimed: that the Titles of Nobility Amendment is, and always has been, the law of the land.