“2. Do you acknowledge that your first and highest allegiance is due to the Government of the United States of America?
“3. Are you willing to take such an oath of allegiance to the United States of America?
“4. Are you willing to pledge yourself to resist to the extent of your power, all attempts to subvert or overthrow the constitution of the United States, or the constitution of the State of Kansas?
“Should the candidates answer affirmatively, the marshal, after repeating to the president, will conduct them into the club room and present them to the president, who shall then address the candidates as follows:
“Gentlemen:—We rejoice that you have thus voluntarily come forward to unite yourselves with us. The cause we advocate is that of our country; banded together for the purpose of perpetuating the liberties for which our fathers fought, we have sworn to uphold and protect them.
“It is a strange and sad necessity which impels American citizens to band themselves together to sustain the constitution and the Union; but the Government under which we live is threatened with destruction. Washington enjoined upon us that ‘the unity of the Government which constitutes us one people is a main pillar in the edifice of our real independence; the support of our tranquility at home, our peace abroad—of our safety, of our prosperity, of that very liberty which we so highly prize.’ He charges that we should ‘properly estimate the immense value of our national Union to our collective and individual happiness; that we should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it; accustoming ourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of our political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned.’
“He tells us again that ‘to the efficiency and permanency of the Union, a Government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict between the parts, is an adequate substitute.’
“It is to sustain this Government we are banded together, and for this purpose you are now required to take a solemn obligation.
“Place your left hand on the National Flag and raise your right hand toward Heaven; repeating after me:
“We and each of us do solemnly swear in the presence of God and these witnesses to support, protect and defend the constitution and Government of the United States and of the State of Kansas against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to maintain and defend the Government of the United States and the flag thereof, and aid in maintaining the laws of the United States in this State and to defend the State of Kansas against invasion from any State or States and from any other rebellion, invasion, insurrection to the best of our ability without any mental reservation or evasion—So help us God.