Talk:Emperor Norton

Inconsistency
In this article the "Frisco" story is written as an unsubstantiated but possibly true claim. The article on the Emperor Norton Trust says that it is false, The Emperor Norton Trust. The truth should probably be investigated or the inconsistency at least corrected. LeatherJr (talk) 05:59, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

Not on the ballot?
The lead currently says, "He had run for Congress in 1858, but was not put on the ballot." That's anachronistic. The government-printed ballot (secret ballot) had not yet been introduced in the United States in 1858. In that era, the political parties or newspapers supporting them would pre-print ballot tickets consisting of their preferred candidates and distribute them to supporters to put into the ballot box. A maverick candidate such as Norton would probably have had to print his own ballots in order to receive votes, but that's a very different situation from the way things were done later on, when a candidate has to garner petition signatures or pay a fee to have their name on the government-printed ballot. -- Metropolitan90 (talk) 06:58, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

is the title erroneous?
should the page be called 'Emperor Norton' if he was in truth not the emperor of anywhere? Sebimus (talk) 17:38, 18 April 2024 (UTC)


 * I think it should count, as in the 1870 census, his profession was listed as "emperor," so he was technically recognised as an Emperor by an official body. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52b7952ee4b07e8bce6a436c/t/5f989d9ac5d3e32f08a60ebe/1603837340465/US_Census_San_Francisco_3rd_Ward_1_Aug_1870_p81.jpg Oofoofow (talk) 17:54, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Has nothing to do with the title being real or not, the fact is that "Emperor Norton" is his WP:Common Name, and that is what governs how we name articles. Cristiano Tomás (talk) 18:11, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

Did Kamehameha V actually recognise Norton as ruler of the United States?
In the "Foreign diplomacy" section of the article, it says that Kamehameha V of Hawaii recognised Norton as ruler of the United States, but this seems highly fake. I've had to remove one source listed on the subject because it didn't say anything on the matter, and the next source is a book from 1988, 108 years after Norton's death. How sure are we actually on this claim? Oofoofow (talk) 18:33, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Great question! We definitely need to find some contemporary sources that support this. The fact that this "factoid" is repeated by many publications, including that of the American Historical Association, is certainly interesting, but not enough to responsibly support the claim. Cristiano Tomás (talk) 19:12, 15 July 2024 (UTC)