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An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before officially assuming an office. Most of the time an oath of office is taken before assuming an office for the state or for some religion. It is usually administered at an inauguration, coronation, enthronement, or other ceremony of taking up office. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The President of the United States oath of office was established in Article II of the U.S. Constitution, and is mandatory for a new President before taking office, or for a re-elected President before beginning a new term. ... An oath (from Saxon eoth) is either a promise or a statement of fact calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually a god, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. ... An affirmation (from Latin affirmare, to assert) is the declaration that something is true. ... An office is a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organisation with specific duties attached to it (see officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one... A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... An inauguration is a ceremony of formal investiture whereby an individual assumes an office or position of authority or power. ... A coronation is a ceremony marking the investment of a monarch with regal power through, amongst other symbolic acts, the placement of a crown upon his or her head. ... The Throne of Canada Thrones for The Queen of Canada, and the Duke of Edinburgh and the Governor General, in the Canadian Senate, Ottawa. ...

Oaths of office are usually a statement of loyalty to a constitution or other legal text, as well as an oath to the state or religion the office holder will be serving. It is often considered a treasonous or highly illegal offense to betray one's oath of office. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ...

see also: oath of allegiance, oath of enlistment An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges his duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to his Sovereign or country. ... The oath of enlistment into the United States Armed Forces is performed by any commissioned officer upon any person enlisting or re-enlisting for a term of service into any branch of the military. ...

United States

Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn-in aboard Air Force One by federal judge Sarah T. Hughes, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

In the United States, the oath of office for the President of the United States is specified in the U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1): Download high resolution version (800x733, 96 KB)Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One following the assassination of John Kennedy, Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963. ... Download high resolution version (800x733, 96 KB)Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One following the assassination of John Kennedy, Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963. ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). ... Air Force One is the air traffic control call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. ... Sarah Tilghman Hughes (August 2, 1896 – April 23, 1985) was the United States District Court judge who swore Lyndon Johnson into office on Air Force One after the Kennedy assassination, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to swear in a Chief Executive. ... For other uses, see JFK (disambiguation) or John Kennedy (disambiguation). ... The President of the United States (unofficially abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The oath may be sworn or affirmed. Although not explicitly present in the text of the Constitution, it has been conventional for Presidents to add "so help me God" at the end of the oath, as that is the traditional way of taking any oath. George Washington did this at his inauguration in 1789. An affirmation (from Latin affirmare, to assert) is the declaration that something is true. ... George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was the successful Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and later became the first President of the United States, an office to which he was elected twice. ... An inauguration is a ceremony of formal investiture whereby an individual assumes an office or position of authority or power. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

For other officials, including members of Congress, that document specifies only that they "shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this constitution." At the start of each new U.S. Congress, in January of every odd-numbered year, those newly elected or re-elected Congressmen - the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate - must recite an oath: Congress in Joint Session. ...

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

This oath is also taken by the Vice President, members of the Cabinet, and all other civil and military officers and federal employees other than the President. While the oath-taking dates back to the First Congress in 1789, the current oath is a product of the 1860s, drafted by Civil War-era members of Congress intent on ensnaring traitors. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the...

In 1789, the First United States Congress had reworked the constitutional requirement into a simple fourteen-word oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States." It also passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established an additional oath taken by Supreme Court justices and district court judges: It has been suggested that List of members of the first U.S. Senate be merged into this article or section. ... The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... The first page of the Judiciary Act of 1789. ... In order to become a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, an individual must be nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the U.S. Senate, with at least half of that body approving in the affirmative. ... The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. ...

I do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me, according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the Constitution, and laws of the United States. So help me God.

The outbreak of the Civil War quickly transformed the routine act of oath-taking into one of enormous significance. In April of 1861, a time of uncertain and shifting loyalties, President Abraham Lincoln ordered all federal civilian employees within the executive branch to take an expanded oath. When Congress convened for a brief emergency session in July, members echoed the president's action by enacting legislation requiring employees to take the expanded oath in support of the Union. This oath is the earliest direct predecessor of the modern version of the oath. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ...

When Congress returned for its regular session in December 1861, members who believed that the Union had as much to fear from northern traitors as southern soldiers again revised the oath, adding a new first section known as the "Ironclad Test Oath." The war-inspired Test Oath, signed into law on July 2, 1862, required "every person elected or appointed to any office ... under the Government of the United States ... excepting the President of the United States" to swear or affirm that they had never previously engaged in criminal or disloyal conduct. Those government employees who failed to take the 1862 Test Oath would not receive a salary; those who swore falsely would be prosecuted for perjury and forever denied federal employment. July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Perjury is lying or making verifiably false statements under oath in a court of law. ...

The 1862 oath's second section incorporated a different rendering of the hastily drafted 1861 oath. Although Congress did not extend coverage of the Ironclad Test Oath to its own members, many took it voluntarily. Angered by those who refused this symbolic act during a wartime crisis, and determined to prevent the eventual return of prewar southern leaders to positions of power in the national government, congressional hard-liners eventually succeeded by 1864 in making the Test Oath mandatory for all members. 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

The Senate then revised its rules to require that members not only take the Test Oath orally, but also that they "subscribe" to it by signing a printed copy. This condition reflected a wartime practice in which military and civilian authorities required anyone wishing to do business with the federal government to sign a copy of the Test Oath. The current practice of newly sworn senators signing individual pages in an oath book dates from this period.

As tensions cooled during the decade following the Civil War, Congress enacted private legislation permitting particular former Confederates to take only the second section of the 1862 oath. An 1868 public law prescribed this alternative oath for "any person who has participated in the late rebellion, and from whom all legal disabilities arising therefrom have been removed by act of Congress." Northerners immediately pointed to the new law's unfair double standard that required loyal Unionists to take the Test Oath's harsh first section while permitting ex-Confederates to ignore it. In 1884, a new generation of lawmakers quietly repealed the first section of the Test Oath, leaving intact the current affirmation of constitutional allegiance.

Reference

• U.S. Senate: Oath of Office
• U.S. Code, Title 5, Sec. 3331: Oath of Office