members of the several State Legislatures,
and the executive and judicial officers, both
of the United States and of the several States
shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to sup-
port the Constitution of the United States,
announced the doctrine of the duty of obe-
dience to and support of the Constitution
and the laws of Congress passed in pursuance
thereof; that a portion of the sovereignty of
the States being delegated, to the extent of
the powers conferred by the Constitution on
the Federal Government, and another por-
tion being retained by the States to the
extent of the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, sovereignty
thereby under our structure of government
ceased to be any longer a unit and indivisible,
but attached to or became a prerogative of
the Federal Government, and the States
respectively, as the several portions of sov-
ereignty were meted out to each.
I search in vain for any form of oath re-
quired in the Constitution to be taken by
any officer of the government, or by any cit-
izen acting in any capacity, by which he
swears that his paramount allegiance, or any
allegiance, is due to the Constitution and
Government of the United States. And I
defy the chairman of this committee, (Mr.
Stirling, ) or any gentleman upon this
floor, to point to any clause in that Consti-
tution in which the. doctrine is announced
that paramount allegiance is due to the Con-
stitution and Government of the United
States. The Constitution announces no such
proposition; and if it had contained any
such, it never would have been adopted.
What is the oath of office which the Consti-
tution prescribes shall be taken by the Presi-
dent of the United States? Article 2, section
8, relating to the Executive of the United
States, prescribes that—
" Before he (the President) enter on the
execution of his office, he shall take the fol-
lowing oath or affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I
will faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States, and will, to the best of
my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States."
And from the day that the father of his
country assumed the reins of government,
down to the day when the present President
stood upon the portico of the capitol at Wash-
ington, and took this oath, no other oath has
been pronounced, or required in form to he
taken by any officer of the government. The
chief executive officer of this government,
clothed with his grand powers, with all the
power of the government to carry out and
execute all the laws, with a power, when this
government is constitutionally administered,
greater even than that exercised by the Queen
of England—the chief executive of the
United States is required only to swear that |
to the best of his ability he will preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the
United States. Does he swear that his para-
mount allegiance is due to the general gov-
ernment? Did the fathers of the republic,
those who framed the oath, think it was ne-
cessary for them to require it? Yet we are
called upon here to announce that paramount
allegiance is due to the Constitution and
Government of the United States, without
any distinction in reference to whether it ex-
ercises its powers within the limits of the
Constitution, or not. Article 6, section 3,
of the Constitution of the United States pro-
vides that—
" 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 this Constitution;
but no religious test shall ever be recognized
as a qualification to any office, or public
trust, under the United States."
There is nothing there about paramount
allegiance to the Constitution and Govern-
ment of the United States. Those who framed
the Constitution, passed in 1789 an act
fixing the same form of oath—"to protect
and support the Constitution of the United
States." The act of June 1, 1789, prescribes
this oath to be taken by all the officers of the
United States:
"I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I will support the Constitution of the
United States."
That is what the fathers of the republic,
who framed the Constitution, laid down as
the form of oath to be taken by every officer
under it. But you find there, Mr, President,
no doctrine of paramount allegiance to the
Constitution and Government of the United
States, irrespective of the question whether
it is administered within its proper sphere or
not, such as is announced in this article.
But, Mr. President, these well considered
principles of the fathers seem now to be al-
most forgotten. In fact, the existence of a
Constitution seems well nigh ignored; and
"military necessity" and the "self-preserva-
tion of the Government"—not through the
forms of the Constitution, but according to
the varying judgment of some inferior or
subaltern—have been substituted as the law
of action. I repeat, not through the forms
of the Constitution; for I will go as far as
any man for the preservation of the Gov-
ernment under the forms and through the
modes prescribed in the Constitution. But
that is not now aimed at. And, as if
aspiring to resuscitate the dry bones and
defunct party forms of "blue-light Fede-
ralism," soon no doubt to be succeeded
by a train of laws assimilated to the
"alien and sedition laws, "it was reserved
for Maryland to experience the humiliation |
