AHC: Knighthoods in the USA

With a POD around 1776, create a situation where honorary titles are awarded in the United States. This can take any form you like; the only restriction is that the USA must remain a republic.
 

Moore2012

Banned
With a POD around 1776, create a situation where honorary titles are awarded in the United States. This can take any form you like; the only restriction is that the USA must remain a republic.

More English nobles live in America and support the Patriot cause. This results in titles of nobility not being banned in the Constitution.

Knighthoods today are awarded about as often as the Legion of Merit.

Titles (Sir Douglas MacArthur, Earl of Manila) are awarded on about the same level as the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
 
Knighthoods work on the same level as Kentucky's Colonels. Sir Sander instead of Colonel. But I agree with Moore2012.
 
Frankly, I don't see any reason why the CSA would necessarily be opposed to them, if they put themslves forward like an aristocratic republic like Venice, Novgorod, or Pre-Medici Genoa or Milan.
 
Knighthoods are so Old World. You should give them titles that appeal to newer sensibilities. Like Citizen Equality.
Eh, that sounds either too 1984 or too communist. I think the CSA is your best bet, because with a POD too early, allowing knighthoods are likely to tear the country apart in its early days.
 

Moore2012

Banned
Sir Robert Lee, Duke of Arlington

Frankly, I don't see any reason why the CSA would necessarily be opposed to them, if they put themslves forward like an aristocratic republic like Venice, Novgorod, or Pre-Medici Genoa or Milan.

An independent CSA might well award some kind of titles, but only if the US had already had them. The CS constitution also banned TON and the south had just as many democrats as aristocratic Whigs.
 
Eh, that sounds either too 1984 or too communist. I think the CSA is your best bet, because with a POD too early, allowing knighthoods are likely to tear the country apart in its early days.

No, it sounds too French. But something like Citizen Liberty or Citizen of the Republic, maybe.
 
How is that?
Will the republican, anti-British north stand for letting titles of nobility into their new nation? Maybe in the south, the governors might be given titles that they carry for life, even after they leave office, but other than that, I can't really see it working.
 
How about Praetor?

I could see that and other Roman titles coming back into vogue if the US keeps titles of nobility for whatever reason. Rome was REALLY popular among the educated elite in the colonies around the time of the War of Independence, I could see them grabbing on to the whole range of what the Romans used if titles stay in. It would also help show the break between the Americans and Europe and seem cool, hip, and modern :p
 
Maybe the idea of an American Patriciate? The early US certainly had a lot of political dynasties and they did love Ancient Rome.
 
The one attempt in OTL to do this, the Order of the Cincinnatti, was attacked on the grounds that membership would be hereditary. In the anti-monarchy, republican atmosphere of the late 18th century even this rather watered down type of knighthood was considered beyond the pale and the Order never recoverde from the ridicule.
It might be possible to consider some POD during or immediately after the ARW which results in a more tolerant attitude towards the Order thus resulting in the Order and others like it becoming accepted parts of the Republic. Membership in these Orders could be conferred by the President or the Congress for achievement in war, industry or the arts and the recepients could wear a nice little ribbon and call themselves Member of the Order of ______ or for senior members, Commander of the Order of ______.
I think this is the most we can expect from late 18th Century and early 19th Century America and it sounds a lot like the Legion of Honor or the Medal of Freedom and only a little like knighthood.
 
In Ignatius Donnelly's Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1890) the ruling class of America have mostly bought foreign titles. For example, the hero, Gabriel Weltstein, saves a man from being run over by the carriage of New York millionaire Jacob Isaacs. Who is also Prince Cabano, since his father bought a property in Italy and the king kindly conferred a title on the landholder.

Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5155
 

scholar

Banned
Will the republican, anti-British north stand for letting titles of nobility into their new nation? Maybe in the south, the governors might be given titles that they carry for life, even after they leave office, but other than that, I can't really see it working.
If they are given federally, for sure there would be a bit of a problem. So long as every state as their own ability to give out or withhold such ceremonial and prestige titles republicans have little to complain about.

Only if it becomes hereditary will there be a significant problem.
 
What if 1) during the ARW soldiers eg from virginia started calling their officers 'sir', maybe washington is called 'lord washington' to parallel LordHowe and Lord Corwallis, say. Then the constitution isnt written with quite the same words.
Or 2) congress decides, at some point, that some high ranking orders carry the tile 'sir'. Since those orders are clearly not hereditary, they arent 'titles of nobility'.
 
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