NOTE: This is the second post regarding the U.S. Constitution’s emolluments clausees. This post discusses the foreign emolluments clause regarding accepting anything of value from a foreign government.
America’s Founders believed that corruption and foreign influence were among the gravest threats to our nation. As a result, they included in our Constitution the Foreign Emoluments Clause. Written in sweeping and unqualified language, the Clause was designed to prevent these two evils from affecting the federal government. This document explores the text and history of the Clause, providing statements from the Founders themselves and the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel,which among other things provides “legal advice to the Executive Branch on all constitutional questions.”1
Text of the Foreign Emoluments Clause, U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 8.
“No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
The Founders Feared a Corrupt Government
Because the Founders believed that corruption was one of the gravest threats to our nation, they viewed anti-corruption measures as essential to preserving an enduring democracy.
- Reflecting common sentiment at the Constitutional Convention, George Mason warned his fellow delegates that “if we do not provide against corruption, our government will soon be at an end.”2 Thus, in drafting the Constitution, the Founders sought to ensure that “corruption was more effectually guarded against, in the manner this government was constituted, thanin any other that had ever been formed.”3 Alexander Hamilton explained that “[n]othing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, andcorruption.”4
- According to James Madison’s notes of the Convention, fifteen delegates used the word “corruption” more than fifty times,5 and corruption was a topic of discussion on almost a quarter of the days that the Convention was insession.6
View the complete post on the U.S. Constitution.org website here.