“I collected myself for a last effort. I read the clause in the Constitution against titles of nobility; showed that the spirit of it was against not only granting titles by Congress but against the permission to foreign potentates granting _any titles whatever_; that as to kingly government, it was equally out of the question as a republican government was guaranteed to every State in the Union; that they were both equally forbidden fruit of the Constitution. I called the attention of the House to the consequences that were likely to follow; that gentleman seemed to court a rupture with the Lower House. The Representatives had adopted the report [rejecting titles] and were this day acting on it or according to the spirit of the report. We were proposing a title. Our conduct would mark us to the world as actuated by the spirit of dissension; and the characters of the [two] Houses would be as aristocratic and democratical.” IX. “HIS ELECTIVE HIGHNESS.” Finally the matter came to a vote and the report of the Title Committee, conferring the title of “Elective Majesty” on Washington was rejected. Then began the fight, for, at least, some kind of a title for the President. Izard moved for the title of “Excellency,” but he withdrew it, upon which Lee suggested “Highness” with some prefatory word such as “Elective Highness.” Maclay records: “It was insisted that such a dignified title would add greatly to the weight and authority of the Government, both at home and abroad. I declared myself of a totally different opinion; that at present it was impossible to add to the respect entertained for General Washington; that if you gave him the title of any foreign prince or potentate, a belief would follow that the manners of that prince and his modes of government would be adopted by the President. (Mr. Lee had, just before I got up, read over a list of the titles of all the princes and potentates of the earth, marking where the word ‘highness’ occurred. The Grand Turk had it, all the crown princes of Germany had it, sons and daughters of crown heads, etc.) That particularly ‘Elective Highness,’ which sounded nearly like ‘Electoral Highness,’ would have a most ungrateful sound to many thousands of industrious citizens who had fled from German oppression; that ‘Highness’ was part of the title of a prince or princess of the blood and was often given to dukes; that it was degrading our President to place him on a par with any prince of any blood in Europe, nor was there one of them that could enter the list of true glory with him.” X. “ROYAL ETIQUETTE.”