and that "persons who had violated the oath to support the Constitution
of the United States ought not to be allowed to hold any office." Mr.
Howard hoped the amendment would not be adopted. "If," said he, "I
understand the senator from Indiana right, he holds that although a
person may have taken that Constitutional oath, if he has not committed
insurrection during the continuance of the term of his office, but
committed that act after the expiration of that term, the previous
taking of the oath by him adds to the act no additional moral guilt. I
do not concur with him in that view. It seems to me that where a
person has taken a solemn oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, there is a fair implication that he cannot afterwards
commit an act which in its effect would destroy the Constitution of the
United States, without incurring at least the moral guilt of perjury."

Mr. Reverdy Johnson supported Mr. Hendricks's amendment. "The effect
of the amendment of the committee," said he, "would be to embrace
nine-tenths, perhaps, of the gentlemen of the South, to disfranchise
them until Congress shall think proper, by a majority of two-thirds
of each branch, to remove the restriction. If the suggestion of the
senator from Indiana is not adopted," continued Mr. Johnson, "then all
who have at any time held any office under the United States, or who
have been in any branch of the Legislature of a State, which they
could not be without taking the oath required by the Constitution of
the United States, are to be excluded from holding the office or
senator or representative, or that of an elector for President or
Vice-President, or any office, civil or military, under the United
States." Mr. Fessenden reminded the senator from Maryland that the
provision, as proposed by the committee, included exactly those classes
to whom the obligation of an oath to support the Constitution was
prescribed in the sixth article of the Constitution, namely "Senators and
representatives and the members of the several State Legislatures, and
all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and the
several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this
Constitution."

Mr. Sherman of Ohio pointed out that the amendment of Mr. Hendricks
would exclude from the operation of the section those who had left the
army of the United States to join the Rebellion. Mr. Hendricks's
amendment received but eight vot