588 



MISSOURI. 



I, A B, do solemnly swear, that I am well ac- 

 quainted with the terms of the third section of the 

 second article of the Constitution of the State of 

 Missouri, adopted in the year eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-five, ana have carefully considered the same 

 that I have never, directly or indirectly, done any 

 of the acts in said section specified ; that I have al- 

 ways been truly and loyally on the side of the United 

 States, against all enemies thereof, foreign and do- 

 mestic ; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to 

 the United States, and will support the Constitution 

 and laws thereof, as the supreme law of the land, any 

 law or ordinance of any State to the contrary not- 

 withstanding ; that I will, to the best of my ability, 

 protect and defend the Union of the United States, 

 and not allow the same to be broken up and dissolved, 

 or 'the Government thereof to be destroyed or over- 

 thrown, under any circumstances, if in my power to 

 prevent it ; that I will support the Constitution of 

 the State of Missouri; and that I make this oath 

 without any mental reservation or evasion, and hold 

 it to be binding on me. 



The sections seventh, etc., to the fourteenth, 

 prescribing the application of the oath, were 

 adopted by the Convention, in the following 

 words : 



7. Within sixty days after this Constitution takes 

 effect, every person in this State holding any office 

 of honor, trust, or profit under the Constitution or 

 laws thereof, under any municipal corporation, or 

 any of the other offices, positions, or trusts mentioned 

 in the third section of this article, shall take and sub- 

 scribe the said oath. If any officer or person re- 

 ferred to in this section shall fail to comply with the 

 requirements thereof, his office, position, or trust 

 shall ipso facto become vacant, and the vacancy shall 

 be filled according to the law governing the case. 



8. No vote in any election by the people shall be 

 cast up for, nor shall any certificate of election be 

 granted to any person who shall not, within fifteen 

 days next preceding such election, have taken, sub- 

 scribed, and filed said oath. 



9. No person shall assume the duties of any State, 

 county, city, town, or other office, to which he may 

 be appointed, otherwise than by a vote of the people ; 

 nor snail any person after the expiration of sixty 

 days after this Constitution takes effect, be permitted 

 to practise as an attorney or counsellor at law ; nor, 

 after that time, shall any person be competent as a 

 bishop, priest, deacon, minister, elder, or other cler- 

 gyman of any religious persuasion, sect, or denomi- 

 nation, to teach or preach or solemnize marriages, 

 unless such persons shall have first taken, subscribed, 

 and filed said oath. 



10. Oaths taken in pursuance of the seventh, 

 eighth, and ninth sections of this article, shall be 

 filed as follows : by a State civil officer, or a candi- 

 date for a State civil office, and by members and 

 officers of the present General Assembly, in the office 

 of the Secretary of State ; by a military officer in 

 the office of the Adjutant-General ; by a candidate 

 for either house of the General Assembly in the 

 clerk's office of the county court of the county of his 

 residence, or in that of the county where the vote of 

 the district is required by law to be cast up, and the 

 certificate of election granted ; by a city or town 

 officer in the office where the archives of such city 

 or town are kept ; and in all other cases, in the office 

 of the clerk of the county court of the county of the 

 person's residence. 



II. Every court in which any person shall be 

 summoned to serve as a grand or petit juror, shall 

 require him, before he is sworn as a juror, to take 

 said oath, in open court ; and no person refusing to 

 take the same shall serve as a juror. 



12. If any person shall declare that he has consci- 

 entious scruples against taking an oath, or swearing 

 in any form, the said oath may be changed into a 



solemn affirmation, and be made by him in that 

 form. 



13. In addition to the oath of loyalty aforesaid, 

 every person who may be elected or appointed to 

 any office, shall, before entering upon its duties, take 

 and subscribe an oath or by affirmation that he will, 

 to the best of his skill and ability, diligently and 

 faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, discharge 

 the duties of such office according to the Constitu- 

 tion and laws of this State. 



14. Whoever shall, after the times limited in tho 

 seventh and ninth sections of this article, hold or 

 exercise any of the offices, positions, trusts, profes- 

 sions, or functions therein specified, without having 

 taken, subscribed, and filed said oath of loyalty, 

 shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by fine not 

 less than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment 

 in the county jail not less than six months, or by 

 both such fine and imprisonment ; and whoever 

 shall take said oath falsely, by swearing or by affir- 

 mation, shall, on conviction .thereof, be adjudged 

 guilty of perjury, and be punished by imprisonment 

 in the penitentiary not less than two years. 



Non-residents, whether Americans or for- 

 eigners, not otherwise disqualified, can vote 

 after a residence of one year, or one year after 

 having declared an intention to become natur- 

 alized. After January 1, 1876, no person un- 

 qualified can become a qualified voter, unless, 

 in addition to the previous requisites, he shall 

 be able to read and write ; cases of physical 

 disability are excepted. The disqualifications 

 of the third section can be removed from per- 

 sons who subsequently entered the military 

 service of the United States and were honor- 

 ably discharged. A majority of both houses 

 of the Legislature, after the year 1871, can sus- 

 pend or repeal any part of the third section 

 relating to the qualifications of voters merely, 

 and after 1875 all parts of the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 

 8th, 9th, 10th, llth, 12th sections may be re- 

 pealed. But no such suspension or repeal shall 

 dispense with the taking, by every person 

 elected or appointed to office, so much of the 

 oath of loyalty as follows the word " domestic ; " 

 subsequently, at the pleasure of the Legislature, 

 the sections so suspended or repealed may be 

 reinstated in the Constitution with full force 

 and effect. 



On February 15th the State Convention adopt- 

 ed a resolution, declaring that in their election 

 the people intended " not only that slavery 

 should be abolished and disloyalty disfran- 

 chised, but that the Constitution should be 

 carefully revised- and amended, to adapt it to 

 the growth of the State." Under this view the 

 Convention proceeded to make an entirely new 

 Constitution. The previous Constitution had 

 been in operation nearly forty-five years, during 

 which great improvements had been made in 

 the Ipcal institutions of various States. Tho 

 efforts of the Convention were, therefore, di- 

 rected to introduce or extend these beneficial 

 changes to the institutions of Missouri. It is 

 unnecessary to repeat the plan for the organiza- 

 tion of the judiciary ; the system of free schools 

 under which gratuitous instruction is afforded 

 to all between the ages of five and twenty 

 years; the creation of corporations, which were 

 to be authorized on general principles, and 



