On a recent radio talk program, a lady called in with the following concern: “Why isn’t or why can’t anyone do anything about how the President is dragging America down and through the mud? It is a disgrace the way he is destroying our nation.” It seems that all American Patriots feel this way.
As I was reading “Messages and Papers of the President,” I was struck by one message in particular, dated April 15, 1834. President Andrew Jackson quoted the following, in part, to the Senate of the United States:
“...By an express provision of the Constitution, before the President of the United States can enter on the execution of his office, he is required to take an oath or affirmation in the following words: ‘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 duty of defending, so far as in him lies the integrity of the Constitution, would indeed have resulted from the very nature of his office, but by thus expressing it in the official oath or affirmation, which, in this respect, differs from that of any other functionary, the founders of our Republic have attested their sense of its importance ...
