Year: 1869

AAhh IusttCt VI NuS NH-


ginia Test-Oath.


The following is the full text of the letter con-
cerning the test oath, which was addressed by
General b. f. Butler to a distinguished citizen
of Virgina-


BAY VIEW, NEAR GLOUCESTER, July 26, 1sG7-My
Dear Sir:-lOur letter reaches me at the seaside,
where have no books for consultation, and to
the preCedents have to rely entirely upon my memory


The question you present. az | understand 1t, is
ths-ln the Virginia election a portion OF the MEM
bers Of the Legislature elected cannot take the OATH
which is necessary qualification to their seats and
this legal disability was known TO the voters at the
time they were elected. Under those circumstances
they being refused their seats, Is the next highest
candidate voted for on the list eligible? This ques-
ton has not always received uniform ruling In
parliamentary bodies. In the celebrated case OF
Wilkes and suttre, after Wilkes had been expelled
from Parliament because of an alleged inability to
take his seat although he was returned at the next
election by nine-tenthS Of all the votes thrown, vet
the House Of Commons seated his opponent, Colonel
Suttrell, who had but mere handful of votes. IL
Will be observed, however, that this was not done
until the second time Wilkes had been unseated the
House assuming that their action was notice to every
voter


This decision has been pretty nearly uniformly
held where the disability was legal and continued
ore, which would render the person unfit to sit i'm
the body TO which he was returned at any future
time Is this the case with the legal disability OF
some of the members elect to the Virginia Legisa-
ture? That disqualification is usually denOminated
an inability TO take the test oath. Stating it in that
way, 1t would hardly seem that moral or con-
scieptious scrupe OF the member as to taking an
cath would or could be generally known to the
et Ct0rS as 10 make IL proper that their vote him
should be considered SO far in defiance OF the law
of the land that their votes should be held for nought
and set aside. But when we remember that
this disqualification or disability to take the test
oath is, in fact, that the members elect have
committed overt acts Of treason against the United
States and many of them in the condition OF pa
rolled prisoners Of war, and that the Reconstruction
acts have precisely made that status OF candidate
an absolute disqualification, and that that has been
done over and over again by Congress- 1t would
seem very clear that the elector who chooses for his
representative such man ought to take the conse
quences OF his own act and have his vote rejected
as If he had thrown it for person actually dead
as many of these men would have been If they had
had their desertsOr cipiliter lOrtui all OF these
men are until relieved by the legislative power which
has imposed the disability.


My opinion therefore, would be, and in that am
quite clear. that it is within the power OF the Gov
erDment and within the requirements or the laws OF
Congress, If administered in their integrity, TO set
aside these men who cannot take the test oath
because of their participation in the Rebellion and
that men who did not 80 participate, and who lost
the votes OF the electors because OF their adherence
10 the Union, should be admitted to their seats as
being the choice OF the only men voting who did not
prefer traitor to the Government to loyal man
for his representative.


have thus far examined the question only in its
legal relations or course shall hear much OF the
necessity OF conciation and OF the necessity OF the
policy OF reconciliation, and OF allowing those who
accept the situation, as the phrase Is, to take part
in the government. But that conciliaton-that
policy of reconcilaton-that permission to those
who forfeited their rights to resume them, or, in
other Words the reconferring of civil rights upon
them-must emanate from Congress, and not from
the Executive; and whatever Congress may do upon
the subject it is clear to my mind that executive OFF,
GERS, as well as every other citizen, can have but
one duty and that is to obey the law; and the law
and its consequences seem to me equally clear,
as l have before stated. When the mat
ter shall come before Congress, then
after full examination of the condition OF the South
States after the evidence shall be heard whether
those men do in good faith accept the situation or
take advantage OF the ballot-boX to do that which
they could not do with the bayonet-i. G., success
fully oppose the GOvernment-when 1t shall fully
appear that the Rebellion indeed is ended, may be
quite of opinion that the law OF Congress should be
repealed, and be ready to vote therefor But until
that time think this law, like every other law or
have the honor to be, very truly yours, ESES


BENJAMIN +. BUTLER (