oath or affirmation to support the Constitution.26 Hence, this provision was a specific limitation on the oath or affirmation required by the Constitution.
That the Religious Test Clause was understood as a specific limitation on the oath required of state and federal officers is supported by comments of two of the delegates to the Convention during the ratification debates. James Madison, in a letter to Edmund Randolph on April 10,1788, explained, "[a]s to the religious test [proviso in Article VI], I should conceive that it can imply at most nothing more than that without that exception, a power would have been
26 The religious test prohibition proposal arose in response to the issue of requiring oaths to uphold the Constitution from state and federal officers. The Virginia Plan offered by Edmund Randolph early in the Constitutional Convention contained a provision requiring all state executive, legislative, and judicial officers to be bound by an oath to support the articles of the Union. 1 Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention ofl 787 at 22 (Yale University Press 1974) (1911). On June 11 the Convention passed that resolution, which included the oath provision. 1 id. at 194, 203-04. Subsequently, on July 23, the Convention voted to add the officers of the National Government to the oath provision along with state officers. 2 id. at 84. The oath clause was referred to the Committee of Detail, 2 id. at 133, and was reported back to the convention on August 6 largely unaltered. 2 id. at 188. (The provision as reported by the Committee of Detail read, "The members of the Legislatures, and the Executive and Judicial officers of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath to support this Constitution.")
In response to the addition of the oath provision, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina moved that various provisions be referred to the Committee of Detail for consideration, including a provision providing that, "No religious test or qualification shall ever be annexed to any oath of office under the authority of the United States." 2 id. at 335. The Convention voted to refer the provisions. 2 id. at 334. On August 30, when the relevant section of the Committee of Detail's report requiring an oath of officers of the state and national governments was brought before the Convention for a vote, it was amended to provide that it could be by oath "or affirmation." 2 id. at 461. After that change was approved, Pinckney moved to amend the provision further by adding the limitation, "But no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the authority of the United States." 2 id. at 461, 468. That motion passed. Id. The provision was later altered in the Committee of Style, retaining the same wording as was proposed but incorporating the religious test prohibition as the final phrase in the sentence providing for oaths or affirmations. See 1 id. at 603. That provision was approved as reported by the Committee of Style, and became the final clause of Article VI of the Constitution without further alterations. U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 3.
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