penalties of perdition were considered as nothing when compared
with pounds, shillings and pence in this world.

_Question_. You know that in nearly all deliberative bodies--in
parliaments and congresses--an oath or an affirmation is required
to support what is called the Constitution; and that all officers
are required to swear or affirm that they will discharge their
duties; do these oaths and affirmations, in your judgment, do any
good?

_Answer_. Men have sought to make nations and institutions immortal
by oaths. Subjects have sworn to obey kings, and kings have sworn
to protect subjects, and yet the subjects have sometimes beheaded
a king; and the king has often plundered the subjects. The oaths
enabled them to deceive each other. Every absurdity in religion,
and all tyrannical institutions, have been patched, buttressed,
and reinforced by oaths; and yet the history of the world shows
the utter futility of putting in the coffin of an oath the political
and religious aspirations of the race.

Revolutions and reformations care little for "So help me God."
Oaths have riveted shackles and sanctified abuses. People swear
to support a constitution, and they will keep the oath as long as
the constitution supports them. In 1776 the colonists cared nothing
for the fact that they had sworn to support the British crown.
All the oaths to defend the Constitution of the United States did
not prevent the Civil War. We have at last learned that States
may be kept together for a little time, by force; permanently only
by mutual interests. We have found that the Delilah of superstition
cannot bind with oaths the secular Samson.

Why should a member of Parliament or of Congress swear to maintain
the Constitution? If he is a dishonest man, the oath will have no
effect; if he is an honest patriot, it will have no effect. In
both cases it is equally useless. If a member fails to support
the Constitution the probability is that his constituents will
treat him as he does the Constitution. In this country, after all
the members of Congress have sworn or affirmed to defend the
Constitution, each political party charges the other with a deliberate
endeavor to destroy that "sacred instrument." Possibly the political
oath was invented to prevent the free and natural development of
a nation. Kings and nobles and priests wished to retain the property
they had filched and clutched, and for that purpose they compelled
the real