U.S. Office of Personnel Management's 'Constitution Initiative' omits key constitutional phrase

The purpose of this website is to provide Federal Executive Branch agencies and departments resources to support training of their employees on the U.S. Constitution ...

... Section 111 of Title I, Division J, of the Fiscal Year 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Pub. L. 108-447), enacted into law on December 8, 2004 requires the head of each Federal agency or department each year to:

1. provide each new employee of the agency or department with educational and training materials concerning the United States Constitution as part of the orientation materials provided to the new employee; and 2. provide educational and training materials concerning the United States Constitution to each employee of the agency or department each year.

I, [name], 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.

As Federal civil servants, we take an oath of office by which we swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution not only establishes our system of government, it actually defines the work role for Federal employees - "to establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty."

The history of the Oath for Federal employees can be traced to the Constitution, where Article II includes the specific oath the President takes - to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Article VI requires an oath by all other government officials from all three branches, the military, and the States. It simply states that they "shall be bound by oath of affirmation to support the Constitution." The very first law passed by the very first Congress implemented Article VI by setting out this simple oath in law: "I do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States."

The wording we use today as Executive Branch employees is now set out in chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code. The wording dates to the Civil War and what was called the Ironclad Test Oath. Starting in 1862, Congress required a two-part oath. The first part, referred to as a "background check," affirmed that you were not supporting and had not supported the Confederacy. The second part addressed future performance, that is, what you would swear to do in the future. It established a clear, publicly sworn accountability. In 1873, Congress dropped the first part of the Ironclad Test Oath, and in 1884 adopted the wording we use today.

Interesting that the "work role for Federal employees" is described as ...

"to establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty."

The Preamble to the Constitution reads ...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

How interesting that the U.S. Government omits "to ourselves and our Posterity" when describing the obligation of their oath of office.

The Constitution not only establishes our system of government, it actually defines the work role for Federal employees - "to establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty."

Even more interesting is that that's NOT the "work role for federal employees - it's the reason WHY the Constitution was drafted.

The "work role for federal employees" is laid out in Article I, Section 8.

You may well have a point.

But, there can be no doubt that if our appointed and elected “leaders” would pay regard to their own sworn oaths before God, they would have to stay within the stated purpose of the Constitution.

I think this is a fantastic expose.

Without the neglected phrase, the stated purpose of the Constitution can easily be interpreted as a paternalistic, statist set of goals.

With the entire phrase, the purpose is the purpose of ‘We the people,’ and recognizes the equal rights of our posterity to the Blessings of Liberty.

I wonder if they give any thought to the fact that there can be no ‘Blessings’ without a ‘Blesser.’

Maybe that’s why they have to ignore the capitialization of the word Blessing that the Framers used for emphasis...

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