Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/335

 ̺CHAPTER X

THE TEST OATH (1833-35)

As the time approached for the legislative session the papers began to discuss the oath question more fully. The nullification papers declared that the oath would be passed by the legislature. The Union papers were filled with warnings against such action. They pleaded with their opponents to be satisfied with the victory they claimed to have won and to give the people a respite from the most angry and distracting party contest ever witnessed in the state. The Nullifiers were warned that the Union men would no longer tamely submit to the tyranny of being excluded from office because they would not swear to the truth of nullification. The Union men continually endeavored to make it clear that they did not object to a mere oath of allegiance to the state, but only to an oath of allegiance clothed in language which amounted to a denial of their federal obligations. Such an act, they asserted, would rekindle the flames of party discord and again involve the state in complete disorder, for 316