“So Help Me God”

As I have already noted historians have questioned whether Washington actually added the words “So Help Me God” to the Presidential Oath. Here are the arguments:

Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution states an oath: “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.”

Peter R. Henriques, professor of History, Emeritus, at George Mason University and author of Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington, wrote a nice piece over at the HNN. He correctly notes that “it would have been completely out of character for George Washington to have tampered with the constitutional text in this way.” And I agree, but I think Henriques overplays his hand when he gets into religion and state. He wants religion gone, and gives us a misguided quote from James Madison. “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant violation.” The Founders wanted freedom OF religion not FROM religion. The word “Intermeddle” is key in this quote.

From A Dictionary of the English Language (1824):

To INTERME’DDLE. v. n. {inter and meddle.] To interpose officiously. Bacon.

INTERME’DDLER. n. -. One that interposes officiously; one that thrusts himself into business to which he has no right. Swift.

Additionally, there is indeed no acceptable evidence that Washington did insert those words, just as there is no acceptable evidence that he did not. There are no good recounts of this event that recall his using the phrase. However, as stated, I agree wit Henriques that Washington probably would not have planned on adding those words. If he did, it would have been a spontaneous event that he simply let out. As Henriques points out, “George Washington kissed the Bible on which he took his oath, and he and other government officials immediately attended religious services at Saint Paul’s church following his inaugural address.”

These were religious men, some more than others. In 1789 the U.S. Congresses needed to come up with how officials (such as themselves) would be sworn in.

On 6 April, 1789, the House of Representatives came up with this:

That the form of the oath to be taken by the members of this Houses, as required by the third clause of the sixth article of the Constitution of Government of the United States, be as followeth, to wit: “I, A B a Representative of the United States in the Congress thereof, do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) in the presence of Almighty GOD, that I will support the Constitution of the United States. So help me GOD.” (source)

Eventually the oath was significantly reduced to “I, A. B. do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”

So we are left with no evidence that George Washington added the phrase “So Help Me God” to the Presidential Oath. Equally, we have no evidence that he did not utter those words. We know that Americans were religious and one could argue that they were extremely so. We also know that those words, “So Help Me God” were at one time considered to be used in an official oath of government. Did they remove it for specific reasons or for simplicity?

Here’s where I am. I am no expert, but I can think.  Incoming Presidents should indeed have the option to use those words or not. The qualifications for being President do not involve being religious, or being a Christian, as outlined in Article II of the Constitution. The Founders would have thought that to be a case of “intermeddling.”

I hope we never have a day where the President is not religious. I cannot think of a more stressful job and how some spirituality would always be of some help.