The Ironclad Oath appeared to draw a firm line in the sand, but that firmness was tested immediately after the first Confederate state-Tennessee-was readmitted to the Union. The Ironclad Oath required that any federal officeholder (members of Congress were added in 1864) swear that he had never served a government in hostility to the United States. One tool for judging the loyalty of potential office holders was the Ironclad Oath of 1862, a law passed by Congress during the Civil War to deter sabotage by Confederate sympathizers. Citizens and government officials alike asked how these men could be trusted to serve the Union that they had so recently fought against. When states from the defeated Confederacy were readmitted to the Union, some of those elected to Congress were the same people who had served the Confederate government or the governments of the seceded states.

Senate wrestled with this question for the first time. One hundred and fifty years ago, the U.S. Senate, National Archives)Ĭould a person who had sworn an oath to the Confederacy later loyally serve the United States? Today’s post comes from Christine Blackerby, Outreach Specialist in the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Camitas oath of loyalty