December 27, 1861 (Thursday): The Ridicule of Silly People

Montgomery Blair

FORT WARREN, Boston Harbor, December 19, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

   SIR:  After an imprisonment of six months (since 18^th of June last) I was yesterday offered release upon terms of taking oath of allegiance and stipulating to observe certain other conditions.  I extremely regret that the terms of the tendered release were such as I could not accept consistently with self-respect and a proper regard for the opinion of those with whom I live and am accustomed to associate. However willing and ready I may be upon all lawful occasions to take an oath of allegiance to the Government (and I hold myself ready upon all such occasions) I cannot reconcile it to my own self-respect to become the especial object of tests that are not prescribed to all others bearing the same relation to the Government as myself (that of a mere private citizen) nor justified by any law of the land. The oath of allegiance pro-posed has never been by any legal authority as you are aware directed or authorized to be administered to the citizens as such, but prescribed only and exclusively to a certain class of employees of the Government.  This oath then when proposed to me is entirely extrajudicial and subjects me to a test to which other citizens are exempt and in my conscientious view of the matter can only tend to degrade and humiliate me in the estimation of myself and others whose good opinion I value and esteem.

  If the oath were prescribed by any law of the land to the citizens generally or any occasion offered when it was lawful to administer it I should not hesitate about it or in the least object to it, but the objection now is that it was not intended to apply to me or to any other private citizen, and in submitted to its illegal administration I should humiliate myself and forfeit the good opinion of mankind.  This feeling though it may not be predicated upon the same reasoning that you would suggest yet being sincerely and conscientiously entertained I hope will be appreciated.  I have deemed it proper that I should thus state the reason for declining the terms of the tendered release.  If conditions be exacted of me I am willing to give any proper parole such as to commit no act hostile to the Government and not to go into the seceded States or communicate with persons therein.  This I feel justified in offered because of the great necessity for my being out of prison to attend to the wants of my family and the requirements of my business.  I must therefore again request that you will order my release without the condition of taking the oath.

I am, your obedient servant,

R. H. ALVEY
Official Records, Series II, Vol. 2, Part 1, Page 353.

Alvey was a noted Maryland attorney and had been arrested for speaking on the constitutionality of secession (favorably) in a public meeting.  Arrested without charges, he was sent to Fort McHenry (in Baltimore) and then on to Fort Warren (in Boston).  He objected to taking this oath: 


“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States against all enemies, whether domestic or foreign, and that I will bear true faith, allegiance and loyalty to the same, any ordinance, resolution or law of any State, convention or legislature to the contrary notwithstanding; and further, that I do this with a full determination, pledge and purpose, without any mental reservation or evasion whatsoever: So help me God.”

Alvey was released after taking this oath (which he proposed himself)
I, R, H. Alvey, a prisoner confined in Fort Warren, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and that I will not commit any act of hostility against the Government thereof, and that during the continuance of the present war I will not go into any of the seceded States or hold any communication with persons therein; and further that I will hold myself in readiness to return to any place of confinement or imprisonment at any moment I may be required so to do by the Government of the United States or by any of its properly constituted officers. So help me God.

Alvey was allowed to take the oath he proposed after the Postmaster General, Montgomery Blair, intervened on his behalf writing to the State Department:

It seems that Alvey has felt obliged to reject the liberty offered to him because of the oath required. It is very silly of him I think, and proceeds entirely from the sensitiveness which he has for the ridicule attached to it by still more silly people.