Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1869 — The "Iron Clad" Oath. [ARTICLE]

The "Iron Clad" Oath.

Generjd Canby proposes that the ■ test oath shall be exacted from the newly elected members of the Virginia legislature. Why this purpose of General Canby’s should raise so much tfxciteqftent in political circles ilia bird fi> Ifetermine. The “iron Invent igfelgfigm getting ioriteoL

those States Hut went into the reVullipih and provides that no pvt-, son shall hold any office under the United States or any State, who has once taken an oath to support the ! the constitution of the United States •ad afterwards engaged in rebellion •gainst th« same, or given aid and ■woiufort to the enemies thereof, but Congress may by a two-thirds vote in each House remove the disability. By Uiis law General Canuy will bd Injure rued, and we do not see that it matters much who are hurt; whether they are conservatives, democrats, or repubiivaiMi, they should bo required to take it, and by that means Iwe will insure a legislature in Virginia that will at least be as loyal ua could be expected from the State j in which was situated the ConfederI ate capital. And then, if some of J the legislators cannot take the “iron . clad oath,” will not the saving ‘ clause to the law save them? Will not Congress remove the disability? We have the authority of the Chicago Tribune and many other leading republican papers for saying that the election in Virginia was a republican victory, this being so, then the test oath need not trouble the members elect, for is not that proof enough, “that they have frankly and honestly co-operated with us in restoring the peace of the country, and arc reconstructed?” Let them attempt the “iron clad,” and if it is more than their weak stomachs can stand, then upon the showing of the universal suffrage and amnesty papers Congress must remove the diability of treason and admit them into the i Union as thoroughly reconstructed •nd worked over, s<l that the stench of treason, is totally obliterated.