OBJECTION III.

I swear to support the Constitution, as I understand it.  Certain parts of it, in my opinion, contradict others and are therefore void.

ANSWER.  Will any one take the title deed of his house and carry it to the man he bought of, and let him keep the covenants of that paper as he says “he understands them?” Do we not all recognize the justice of having some third, disinterested party to judge between two disputants about the meaning of contracts?  Who ever heard of a contract of which each party was at liberty to keep as much as he thought proper?

As in all other contracts, so in that of the Constitution, there is a power provided to affix the proper construction to the instrument, and that construction both parties are bound to abide by, or repudiate the whole contract.  That power is the Supreme Court of the United States.

Do we seek the common sense, practical view of this question?  Go to the Exchange and ask any broker how many dollars he will trust any man with, who avows his right to make promises with the design, at the time, of breaking some parts, and not feeling called upon to state which those parts will be?

Do you seek the moral view of the point, which philosophers have taken?  Paley says, “A promise is binding in that sense in which the promiser thought at the time of making that the other party understood it.”  Is there any doubt what meaning the great body of the American people attach to the Constitution and the official oath?  They are that party to whom the promise is made.

But, say some, our lives are notice to the whole people what meaning we attach to the oath, and we will protest when we swear, that we do not include in our oath the pro-slavery clauses.  You may as well utter the protest now, as when you are swearing—­or at home, equally as well as within the State House.  For no such protest can be of any avail.  The Chief Justice stands up to administer to me the oath of some office, no matter which.  “Sir,” say I, “I must take that oath with a qualification, excluding certain clauses.”  His reply will be, “Sir, I have no discretion in this matter.  I am here merely to administer a prescribed form of oath.  If you assent to it, you are qualified for your station.  If you do not, you cannot enter.  I have no authority given me to listen to exceptions.  I am a servant—­the people are my masters—­here is what they require that you support, not this or that part of the Constitution, but ‘the Constitution,’ that is, the whole.”

Baffled here, I turn to the people.  I publish my opinions in newspapers.  I proclaim them at conventions, I spread them through the country on the wings of a thousand presses.  Does this avail me?  Yes, says Liberty party, if after this, men choose to vote for you, it is evident they mean you shall take the oath as you have given notice that you understand it.