Having touched upon the subject of Honor (Bound by Honor?), we shall now venture into the subject of that Honor. From the ratification of the Constitution, through today, it has been held that an oath is one of the requisites for office. It was required of the President (Article II, § 1, clause 8) and the "Senators and Representatives ... and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States" (Article VI, clause 3). It was so important that a violation of that oath was enforced, after the Civil War, with a prohibition against holding public office to all who had taken such oath and then joined "in insurrection or rebellion" (14th Amendment, §3). All state constitutions have, likewise, adopted requirements for an oath of office to hold positions of public trust.
