ed to rebellion."

At the same term with the Milligan case the test-oath case from
Missouri was brought before the Court and argued. In January, 1865, a
convention had assembled in that State to amend its constitution. Its
members had been elected in November previous. In April, 1865, the
constitution, as revised and amended, was adopted by the convention,
and in June following by the people. Elected, as the members were,
in the midst of the war, it exhibited throughout traces of the
animosities which the war had engendered. By its provisions the most
stringent and searching oath as to past conduct known in history was
required, not only of officers under it, but of parties holding trusts
and pursuing avocations in no way connected with the administration of
the government. The oath, divided into its separates parts, contained
more than thirty distinct affirmations touching past conduct, and even
embraced the expression of sympathies and desires. Every person unable
to take the oath was declared incapable of holding, in the State, "any
office of honor, trust, or profit under its authority, or of being
an officer, councilman, director, or trustee, or other manager of any
corporation, public or private, now existing or hereafter established
by its authority, or of acting as a professor or teacher in any
educational institution, or in any common or other school, or of
holding any real estate or other property in trust for the use of any
church, religious society, or congregation."

And every person holding, at the time the amended constitution took
effect, any of the offices, trusts, or positions mentioned, was
required, within sixty days thereafter, to take the oath; and, if
he failed to comply with this requirement, it was declared that his
office, trust, or position should _ipso facto_ become vacant.

No person, after the expiration of the sixty days, was permitted,
without taking the oath, "to practice as an attorney or
counsellor-at-law," nor, after that period could "any person be
competent as a bishop, priest, deacon, minister, elder, or other
clergyman, of any religious persuasion, sect, or denomination, to
teach, or preach, or solemnize marriages."

Fine and imprisonment were prescribed as a punishment for holding or
exercising any of "the offices, positions, trusts, professions,
or functions" specified, without having taken the oath; and false
swearing or affirmation in taking it was declared to be perjury,