My main objection to any of this is that many, while swearing to uphold and defend the Constitution, in the end do not. Sadly, we as a people aren't smart enough or angry enough to hold them accountable. MTCW.
....It began sometime after the Civil War began, not after George Washington. I don't object to any oath taker saying those words after the oath is completed.
Nor do I; nor object to them not appending same.As far as conventional wisdom goes, it exists for the same reason stereotypes do... that there is oft times more truth there than we can know for sure. It may not have been cited because it was "commonly known at the time" and / or we have not yet found the mention. Questioning is the key and we need to keep looking for the truth. For me, this slides into the realm of the Hancock quote about his signature... in character but unproven by any solid evidence.Wally
Having just finished McCullough's bio of John Adams, I found that he too indicates SHMG was part of the Oath (taken by GW). Two points here… Adams was far closer and more dependable than the six year old Irving and I doubt McCullough puts anything in any of his works because it is conventional wisdom (w/o checking).Wally
... a six year old witness is a dubious source particularly when he is first writing about the event over 60 years later. I think that is common sense. ....
....I think this illustrates a tendency for politics and religion to corrupt each other when they mix.Good for your students.
Often the same for politics, in general, and any particular, closely held personal (or institutional) agenda, we shoose to examine, eh?Thank you, we try.
I agree that this is likely where most of the Patriots started… we were after all English, at least when we got here.Picking a side then was probably about like trying to choose who to vote for (or against) in Nov. A train wreck!
Not (I'm sure) our gov't has pulled something from their collective behind and likely not the last. Glad you've cleared this one up for us; I can now debunk another history myth for my students.Cheers,Wally
....Again, as I said earlier, the other claims that a president appended that phrase first appear during the Civil War. Confederate Jefferson Davis was first. Arthur Chester...
?
... may have been the first U.S. president to append that phrase. Arthur Chester as vice president would have taken the Civil War Iron Clad oath that had that phrase, so when he became president he may have just followed what he did when he recited the V.P. oath.
Assuming you mean Chester Arthur; he became VP in 1881 (after the the Oath had fallen out of favor) though he may have, at some point previously, taken it as it was favored by many Radical Republicans.
The newspapers widely reported that he appended that phrase.