“The Chair proposes now to take and subscribe this oath, in pursuance of the law of 2d July last, and, that being done, the Chair will administer the oath to such members as will voluntarily take it.”
The oath was then administered to Mr. Foot by Mr. Foster. Resuming the chair, the President pro tempore then said:—
“The Chair will now direct the Clerk to call, in alphabetical order, the names of all Senators who have been elected or reëlected since the 2d July, 1862, that being the day of the approval of the Act; and such Senators present, whose names shall be called, as choose to do so, will come forward to the Secretary’s desk and receive the oath of office administered by the Chair, after which they will have an opportunity to subscribe the oath.”
The Senators present, whose names were called, some of them after delay, came forward and took the oath; and then, at the suggestion of the Chair, Mr. Sumner withdrew the resolution. The Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] was not then present.
Before withdrawing the resolution, Mr. Sumner, in reply to Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, again vindicated the proposed rule, insisting that the statute was applicable to Senators as “civil officers,” concluding as follows.
It is our duty to guard the loyalty of this Chamber. In requiring that a person shall purge himself with regard to the past, we simply take a new assurance of fidelity for the present. Others may think that Jefferson Davis, Robert Toombs, or Judah Benjamin may resume his seat in this body, on taking a simple oath to support the Constitution. I do not think so; and I gladly seize the earliest opportunity, since the commentary of the Senator from Maryland, to declare my conviction that no person, whose loyalty is not manifest to the Senate, can be allowed to approach your desk and take the oath of a Senator. The Senate must shut the door upon him. This is not the first time that I have made this declaration: nor have I contented myself with making the declaration; I have argued it. Nothing is clearer than this: a traitor cannot be a member of the Senate. But a person who cannot take this oath, retroactive though it be, must have been a traitor. Once a traitor, always a traitor, unless where changed by pardon or amnesty.
I know not what changes may be required by changing events. For myself, I shall always welcome every act of just clemency or condonation. But for the present the statute is wise and conservative. It only remains that we should stand by it.
At the next session of Congress Mr. Sumner returned to this question. December 17, 1863, he submitted a resolution proposing a new rule.
“Resolved, That the following be added to the rules of the Senate:—
“The oath or affirmation prescribed by Act of Congress of July 2, 1862, to be taken and subscribed before entering upon the duties of office, shall be taken and subscribed by every Senator in open Senate before entering upon his duties. It shall also be taken and subscribed in the same way by the Secretary of the Senate; but the other officers of the Senate may take and subscribe it in the office of the Secretary.”