Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/710

CHAPTER XLIII.

OATHS OF OFFICE—RELIGIOUS TEST—RATIFICATION OF CONSTITUTION.

§ 1837. The next clause is,

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support the constitution.^[1] But no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

§ 1838. That all those, who are entrusted with the execution of the powers of the national government, should be bound by some solemn obligation to the due execution of the trusts reposed in them, and to support the constitution, would seem to be a proposition too clear to render any reasoning necessary in support of it. It results from the plain right of society to require some guaranty from every officer, that he will be conscientious in the discharge of his duty. Oaths have a solemn obligation upon the minds of all reflecting men, and especially upon those, who feel a deep sense of accountability to a Supreme being. If, in the ordinary administration of justice in cases of

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1. This clause, requiring an oath of the state and national functionaries to support the constitution, was at first carried by a vote of six states against five; but it was afterwards unanimously approved. Journ. of Convention, p. 114, 197. On the final vote, it was adopted by a vote of eight states against one, two being divided. Id. 313. The clause respecting a religious test was unanimously adopted. Id. 313.