That the Senate will openly refuse obedience to an existing statute, recently enacted, in support of loyalty, is not to be supposed without impeachment of the loyalty of the Senate. Only because the question of obedience has been complicated with other questions has there been for a moment any doubt on this head. Clearly, the Senate will not disobey an existing statute. It is, then, on the statute alone, and nothing else, that any question can arise.
And here I ask leave to recall the Senate from the learned commentary and elaborate diversion of the Senator from Delaware. The actual question is one which may be treated without learning and without effort. It arises on the following words of the statute:—
“Hereafter every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government of the United States, either in the civil, military, or naval departments of the public service, excepting the President of the United States, shall, before entering upon the duties of such office, and before being entitled to any of the salary or other emoluments thereof, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation [here follows the oath]; which said oath, so taken and signed, shall be preserved among the files of the Court, House of Congress, or Department to which the said office may appertain.”[291]
It cannot fail to be observed here that the language is plain rather than technical. Every person “elected” or “appointed” to any “office” in the “civil, military, or naval departments of the public service” must take the oath. What words could be broader than “departments” and “public service”?
Obviously, and beyond all question, a Senator is “elected.” Therefore on this point there is no question.
The inquiry recurs, Is a Senator an “officer” in the “civil department of the public service”?
Is he an “officer”?
Is he in the “civil department”?
To raise these questions seems absurd. But I have not raised them. This is done by others. You might as well raise the question, if a man is a creature, and belongs to the human family.