Vanishing 13th Amendment, Now You See It / Now You Don’t -Titles of Nobility Amendment (TONA)

Recently I stumbled upon several sites on the internet that claim that Amendment XIII of the Constitution of The United States of America is not the Amendment that was ratified by the states. These sites claim that the original 13th. Amendment was of serious concern to the nations Bankers and Lawyers. For that reason they believe that there was a second rewriting of our Constitution that was conducted in extreme secrecy behind closed doors. As with most things in life, including a lie, there is always a little truth nestled inside.

After starting my research into this mystery my first impression was that there was no mystery, the Amendment was never ratified. However as I dug deeper into the facts I became convinced that it had indeed been ratified and was actually listed as the 13th. Amendment to the Constitution for the over 50 years. The amount of evidence and documentation that supports ratification is so overwhelming that only a fool (like the US Government) would dare to contend otherwise.

On January 18, 1810 a group of Senators led by Philip Reed of Maryland issued their first version of a proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution, commonly called the Titles of Nobility Amendment (TONA) Amendment XIII was approved by Congress on May 11th, 1810 and sent to the state legislatures for ratification. Following is the original text contained in this amendment:

Amendment XIII

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

Two years after TONA was sent to the states for ratification the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland started. The war continued until 1815 (2 ½ years). In 1819, just recently out a the war in which thousands had lost their lives, a degree of confusion, and relief, reigned over the country. Prior to 1812 twelve states had ratified the amendment, one state shy of final ratification. Two states, South Carolina and Virginia, remained. South Carolina eventually tabled the proposal. On February 27, 1818 it was known with precision that Virginia was the deciding vote. On December 17, 1818 the Legislators of Virginia convened and agreed to do an omnibus bill which would include there publication of The Code of Virginia including the United States Constitution and amendments. This publication included Amendment XIII, the Titles of Nobility Amendment. Christopher Runkel of the National Archives acknowledged in 1994 that Virginia ratified the original Thirteenth Amendment on March 12, 1819 and the evidence of the ratification by Virginia is the special printing of 4000 copies as part of their organic state laws.

From 1819 until 1876 (a period of 57 years), twenty-five States and/or Territories had officially published this amendment as being ratified in state and legal documents some 77 times. Strangely, after 1876, this Article of Amendment “disappeared” from our Constitution and the 14th Amendment was suddenly being shown as the 13th Amendment. The 15th Amendment became the 14th; the 16th Amendment became the 15th, and so on.

The original records of the real 13th Amendment were thought to be destroyed at the time of the burning of the capitol during the War of 1812 but have since been found in the archives of the British Museum library in London and in the archives of several of the States and Territories. It was in the records of the ratifying states, and subsequently admitted states and territories until 1876. The last to drop it from record was the Territory of Wyoming after 1876. The most intriguing discovery was the 1867 Colorado Territory edition which includes both the “missing” 13th Amendment and the current 13th Amendment, on the same page. The current 13th Amendment is listed as the 14th Amendment in the 1867 Colorado edition

The government representatives have been unable to produce any evidence that proves or backs up their allegations that TONA was never ratified. In fact their own actions would seem to indicate otherwise. In 1825, six years after ratification of TONA, the U.S. Government published the book “U.S. Military Law”. Included in the front of this book was a copy of the Constitution of The United States which showed TONA as the 13th Amendment . Six years after ratification the government, by their own actions, admitted it to be the 13th Amendment with the publication of this Military Law book.

The Constitution limits consideration of constitutional amendments to states already in the union and Congress provided no qualification in this or any other resolution proposing a constitutional amendment. Thus, even if a territory reached statehood before culmination of the ratification process, there was no standing for that state to participate in the process. If Congress meant for that legislative option to be available, it would have had to so stipulate.

The Supreme Court tells us what authority the Secretary of State and the National Archives have as to when an amendment goes into effect after ratification: “the …amendment becomes effective when the necessary number of States ratified it, not when the Secretary of State issued a certificate… we conclude that the extent of the Acting Archivist’s authority with respect to amendments … is ‘ministerial’ in nature.” If this is true, then the States, and only the States, can acknowledge ratification of the Titles of Nobility Amendment. This is clearly demonstrated by the evidence from the 25 States and/or Territories who included this amendment in 77 of their official and legal publications and/or documents from 1819 until 1876. The States had no doubt in their minds when the included the Titles of Nobility Amendment as as the 13th Amendment and part of the Constitution of the United States of America for the next 57 years.

The following link contains all of the files and documents from the various states showing the ratification of TONA: TONA Documents & Papers Relating To Ratification

This link will take you to the site of amendment-13.org where you will find some excellent information addressing this “disappearing” Amendment: Amendment-13.org