Honorary citizenship of the United States by proclamation. What rights and privileges honorary citizenship bestows, if any, is unclear. According to State Department documents, it does not grant eligibility for United States passports. Despite widespread belief that Lafayette received honorary citizenship of the United States before Churchill, he did not receive honorary citizenship until 2002. Lafayette did become a natural-born citizen during his lifetime. On 28 December 1784, the Maryland General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Lafayette and his male heirs "forever shall be...natural born Citizens" of the state. This made him a natural-born citizen of the United States under the Articles of Confederation and
An Act further to protect the commerce of the United States the expense of the United States. APPROVED, July 9, 1798. An Act further to protect the commerce of the United States An Act further to protect the commerce of the United States, (5th Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 68, ) is an act of Congress approved July 9, 1798, authorizing the President of the United States to use military force in the Quasi-War with France. On June 28, 1798 a committee appointed to consider President Adams' recommendations to Congress reported a bill further to protect the commerce of the United States which was received and read the first and second time.