emOluments

clipped from www.washingtonexaminer.com In The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, Robert Delahunty makes the point that it wasn't merely the cash or a title of nobility that had the Framers worried: "The delegates at the Constitutional Convention specifically designed the clause as an antidote to potentially corrupting foreign practices of a kind that the Framers had observed during the period of the Confederation. ... Wary, however, of the possibility that such gestures might unduly influence American officials in their dealings with foreign states, the Framers institutionalized the practice of requiring the consent of Congress before one could accept "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from ... [a] foreign State." By coincidence, Federalist Paper No. 22 uses Sweden as an example of the ability of foreign powers to meddle in domestic affairs.