The Union members of the legislature prepared an address to the people, explaining their reasons for accepting the report of the Joint Committee on Federal Relations. With the bill to amend the constitution was introduced a bill to define treason, and notice was given of one to follow which would amend the judiciary system of the state. These measures led to the conviction that the majority would give the path of allegiance to the state a construction which the Union men believed was incompatible with the Constitution of the United States. When the amendment was passed, the Union men declared that they would enter on the journals their protest, but before that was necessary the Joint Committee on Federal Relations reported, in regard to the petitions filed against the oath, that "the allegiance required by the amendment is that allegiance which every citizen owes to the state consistently with the Constitution of the United States." This was adopted by large majorities in both houses.[1]
The Union men at once regarded it as an offer of conciliation and a pledge that the acts defining treason and amending the judiciary would not be
- ↑ The vote was 36 to 4 in the Senate, and 90 to 28 in the House; see Messenger, December 24, 1834.
