518 



MISSOUKI. 



section of the second article of the constitution; nor 

 shall, hereafter, any such person, before he_ enters 

 upon the discharge of his said duties, be required to 

 take the oath of loyalty prescribed in the sixth sec- 

 tion of said article : but every person, who may be 

 elected or appointed to any office, shall, before enter- 

 in? upon its duties, take and subscribe an oath or 

 affirmation that he will support the Constitution of 

 the United States and of the State of Missouri, and 

 to the best of his skill and ability diligently and 

 faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, discharge 

 the duties of such office according to the constitution 

 and laws of this State. 



SEC. 2. Sections 7, 8, 9,10,13, and 14, of the second 

 article of the constitution, and all provisions there- 

 of, and all laws of this State not consistent with this 

 amendment, shall, upon its adoption, be forever re- 

 scinded and of no effect. 



ABOLISHING OATH OF LOYALTY TOE JUEOKS. 



SECTION 1. The eleventh section of the second 

 article of the constitution of this State, requiring per- 

 sons to take the oath of loyalty prescribed in the 

 sixth section, is hereby stricken out and forever 

 rescinded. 



One of the other amendments abolishes the 

 district courts and vests all judicial power in 

 the Supreme and Circuit Courts and such other 

 tribunals as may be established by law. The 

 sixth section of the eighth article is amended so 

 as to read : " Dues from private corporations 

 shall be secured by such means as may be pre- 

 scribed by law, but in no case shall any stock- 

 holder be individually liable in any amount 

 over or above the amount of the stock owned 

 by him or her." The following was proposed 

 as a new section to article nine : 



SECTION 10. Neither the General Assembly, nor any 

 county_, city, town, township, school district, or other 

 municipal corporation, shall ever make any appropri- 

 ation or pay from any public fund whatever any thing 

 in aid 01 any creed, church, or sectarian purpose, or 

 to help support or sustain any school, academy, sem- 

 inary, college, university, or other institution of 

 learning, controlled by any creed, church, or sectarian 

 denomination whatever, nor shall any grant or dona- 

 tion of personal property or real estate ever be made 

 by State, county, city, town, or such public corpora- 

 tion, for any creed, church, or sectarian purpose 

 whatever. 



Notwithstanding these concessions, the or- 

 ganizers of the liberal movement did not aban- 

 don their plans, and the Eepublican party of 

 the State was rapidly becoming divided into 

 two widely-separated wings, known as the 

 liberal and the radical. The Democrats had 

 little or no voice in any of the public proceed- 

 ings of the State, and the few members of the 

 Legislature who represented that party had met 

 in caucus on the 18th of March, and adopted a 

 resolution that it was " inexpedient to call a 

 Democratic State Convention or to nominate 

 candidates for State offices for the ensuing 

 November election." The Democratic State 

 Central Committee adopted the suggestion 

 contained in this resolution, and on the 13th 

 day of August issued an address, setting forth 

 their reasons for pursuing the course recom- 

 mended. This address speaks of the party in 

 the canvass of 1868 as "united, zealous, and 

 hopeful," but declares that its efforts were 

 futile " in the presence of the proseriptive, par- 



tisan spirit and tyrannous party machinery" 

 of its opponents. The result of the election 

 of that year, it declares, " was produced by 

 wholesale disfranchisements, thousands of 

 which, in addition to violating the principles 

 of republican liberty, violated the spirit of the 

 Missouri constitution itself, illiberal as that in- 

 strument is in respect to suffrage * * * It 

 was seen that the radical party had obstructed 

 the suffrage franchise expressly to repel citi- 

 zens from the polls. It had, so far as it could, 

 made the freeman a culprit, casting upon him 

 the suspicion of being the worst of criminals, 

 and forcing him to prove by others his inno- 

 cence of crime, where his own conscience 

 only could be his witness. Instead of viewing 

 the people as honest and patriotic, it had as- 

 sumed them to be traitors and perjurers. It 

 had placed in the hands of a few, and those 

 the most unscrupulous and irresponsible of 

 partisans, the solemn right of citizens to equal 

 freedom. It had refused to abide by its own 

 measures, made and manipulated by its own 

 instruments. It had, in many instances, ruth- 

 lessly and insultingly thrown aside those whom 

 the manacled voters had chosen for their rep- 

 resentatives in office, and had placed in power 

 over them those whom they, in spite of the 

 attempt to defeat their will by an atrocious 

 registration, had ignominiously spurned." Still 

 the party did not despond until the Supreme 

 Court had pronounced the test-oath valid, and 

 the Legislature refused to amend the registra- 

 tion act. This " destroyed the last hope of 

 any fair election." Hence the course which 

 the committee had determined to follow, of 

 calling no convention. They recommend, 

 however, that in any localities where fair regis- 

 tering officers are appointed, active exertions 

 should be made for the election of candidates 

 upholding the principles of the Democratic 

 party. " They would further suggest," they 

 say, " that in no case should a Democratic vote 

 be cast for a member of the Legislature without 

 the previous public pledge of the candidate to 

 vote for the immediate abolition of the test-oath 

 and the thorough reconstruction of the regis- 

 tration act. However individual opinions may 

 differ with regard to the proposed suffrage 

 amendments or to the prospects of their adop- 

 tion or rejection, the eyes of the people in the 

 coming election will be turned most hopefully 

 to the next General Assembly for the removal 

 of the present suffrage restrictions. Where, 

 owing to the causes we have recounted, the 

 Democracy shall not have distinctive party can- 

 didates of their own, the few who may be per- 

 mitted to vote will be wise and prudent if they 

 watch the opportunity to give the weight of 

 their influence, however slight, in behalf of a 

 liberal policy." 



The close of the address is in these words : 



"We are free to confess that the retirement of the 

 Democracy from a political campaign so important and 

 critical as that of the present year is not without its 

 sad and even humiliating aspects. Great exertions 



