Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/316

Rh contrary notwithstanding." They argued that the oath and obligation of federal allegiance were necessarily paramount to the oath and obligation of state allegiance; that to make in the state constitution an express reservation of supremacy in favor of the supreme law of the land would be, to say the least, an act of supererogation. In fact, they declared that the obligation of state allegiance included that of federal allegiance, for both the federal and the state constitutions composed the fundamental law within the limits of every state, and the former was in express terms vested with supremacy over the latter in case of a conflict between them.

No one denied the right of a state to require of its citizens an oath of fidelity, and there was not a Union man in South Carolina who woidd not readily swear or affirm, after the form of the Massachusetts oath, "I, A. B., do solemnly swear, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the commonwealth of South Carolina, and will support the constitution thereof, so help me God." If this state, even after the passage of her ordinance of nullification, had required such an oath from her citizens, the Union editors saw no reason why it should not have been cheerfully taken by