ment of the
United States, either in the civil, military, or naval departments of
the public service, the President alone excepted. The officer, before
entering upon his duties or receiving any emolument, was compelled to
swear that he had "never voluntarily borne arms against the United
States;" that he had "voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel,
or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility to the National
Government;" that he had "neither sought nor accepted nor attempted to
exercise the functions of any office whatever under authority or
pretended authority in hostility to the United States;" that he had
"never yielded a voluntary support to any pretended Government within
the United States, hostile or inimical thereto." Of course the men who
had been waging war against the Government could not take this oath
except by committing perjury and risking its pains and penalties. But
nothing daunted by the existence of this obstacle at the threshold of
public service, the most notorious rebels sought election to the Senate
and House, boasting that they would prove the unconstitutionality of
the Ironclad oath, and demand their seats.

Alexander H. Stephens "had the assurance," as the committee already
quoted declared, "with that oath staring him in the face, to lay his
credentials on the table of the Senate as a senator-elect from
Georgia." When Congress adjourned, March 3, 1865, Mr. Stephens was
acting as the Vice-President of the rebel Confederacy. Six weeks later
the Confederacy was destroyed, and with a political agility
unparalleled, with a degree of presumption unprecedented, Mr. Stephens
secured an election to the Senate, and was in Washington at the
ensuing session of Congress, asking admission to a seat as cooly as if
every living man had forgotten that for four years he had been exerting
his utmost effort to destroy the Constitution under which he now
claimed the full rights of a citizen. In his astounding effrontery Mr.
Stephens even went so far as to insist on interpreting to those loyal
men, who had been conducting the Government of the United States
through all its perils, the Constitution under which they had been
acting, and to point out how they were depriving him of his rights by
demanding an oath of loyalty and good faith as the condition on which
he should be entitled to take part in legislating for the restored
Union. The same committee, worthy at all times to be cited, declare