Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/337

318 maintain, to the utmost of my ability, the laws and constitution of this state and the United States; so help me God." Of course the Union men opposed it bitterly, but in vain. Some few of the Nullifiers still opposed it; of the Charleston delegation only one fought against it. There could be no doubt left as to the interpretation of the oath intended by the Nullifiers, for they voted down in the Senate an amendment which provided "that nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to impair or in any manner affect the allegiance now due by the constitution of this state and of the United States."

The State Rights men contemplated a further exclusion of Union men, for they passed for the first time a bill to amend the state constitution so as to add a similar oath to be required of all officers in the state. The oath was to be extended from the military to the civil list. As an amendment to the constitution required the approval of two successive legislatures, the question would not be finally settled until the next year, when a new legislature would convene. The oath for all officers, which was proposed to be incorporated in the constitution by amendment, and on which