Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-01-29
A NEW WRINKLE.
Tho Uaited States Land Office Doing the
supsr-Loyal Buslnsss--Ths Tron-O Glad Cath
Exacted.

The State Senator from Los An
geles county, Col. George H.
Smith, yesterday made us &C.
quainted with new loyalty
crochet Of the powers that be at
Washington, at least so far as the
Com missioner of the General Land
Office is concerned. To fully real
ize the letter of Commissioner
Armstrong and the blanks which
follow it should be borne in mind
that the firm of Glassell, Chapman
& Smiths have been practising be.
fore the Com missioner of the Land
Office for the past ten years. At
this remove from the war-which
has happily passed into history
this Land Office fellow writes the
following:
DEPARTMENT OF TIE INTERIOR, !
GENERAL LAND OFFICE,
December 16, 1879.
Sir: Your attention is respecI-
fully invited to rule 5, Of the Rules
OF Practice, approved October 9,
1878, and to take effect from and
after December l, 1878, providing
that in all cases where parties in
interest are represented by attor-
neys, such attorneys must, prior
to recognition, file the oath of Of
fics required by section 3478 of the
Revised Statutes of the United
states. l enclo,e, herewith, a
blank form of the oath required,
which you are requested to prop
erly execute and transmit to this
ONCE. Very respectfully, your
obedient servant,
]. M. ARMSTRONG,
Acting Commissioner.
Enclosed with this precious doc
ument were three blank ironclad
oaths, one for each member of the
firm of Glassell, Chapman g.
Smiths, the subjoined being an ex-
act copy:
OATH,
T., do solemnly - that T
have never voluntarily borne arms
against the United States since I
have been a citizen thereof; that 1
have voluntarily given no aid,
countenance, counsel, or encourage.
ment, to persons engaged In armed
hostility thereto; that have neith.
er sought nor accepted, nor at.
tempted to exercise the functions
of, any office whatever, under any
authority, or pretended authority,
in hostility to the United States;
that / have not yielded voluntary
support to any pretended govern
ment, authority, power, or consti.
tuition, within the United States.
hostile and inimical thereto. And
90 further - that, to the best of
my knowledge and ability, 1 will
support and defend the Constitu.
tion of the United States against all
enemies, foreign aud domestic; and
that l will bear true faith and al
legiance to the same; that 1 take
this obligation freely, without any
mental reservation or purpose of
evasion; and that 1 will well and
faithfully discharge the duties of
the office on which am about to
enter: So help me God.
Sworn to and subscribed before
me this - day Of "A. D. 1877 :.
We learn from this precious en-
anation of Land Office f1unkey
that men who fought in the Con-
federate army may be Senators and
representatives of the United States
but that they cannot practice be-
fore his picayune Court. The Sec
tion OF the Revised Statutes to
which he refers has two forms of
oath correspsnding to the ironclad
and the modified oath administered
to Senators and Representatives in
Congress, as occasion may call for
either. The probability is that the
funkey Armstrong is too deeply
preoccupied with some monstrOus
'steal" to know or regard the law.
We suggest to a Democratic Con-
gress that it would be we'll to clip
his comb short. No money should
be appropriated from the United
States Treasury for any such reac-
tionary creature as this Armstrong.