<P> The outbreak of the Civil War quickly transformed the routine act of oath - taking into one of enormous significance . In April 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

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