The Presidential Emolument Clause

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.  Art II, Sec 1, cl 7

David Hume on Emoluments

The top-five-all-time-philosopher David Hume did not actually interpret the Emolument Clauses of the United States Constitution, which will not surprise you when you recall that he died two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Hume did, however, leave us a little evidence of the usage of “emoluments”  from one of the eighteenth century’s most literate and astute pens: