Article 6, Clause 3

Document 22

James Madison to Edmund Randolph

As to the religious test, I should conceive that it can imply at most nothing more than that without that exception, a power would have been given to impose an oath involving a religious test as a qualification for office. The constitution of necessary offices being given to the Congress, the proper qualifications seem to be evidently involved. I think too there are several other satisfactory points of view in which the exception might be placed.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 4, Article 6, Clause 3, Document 22
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a6_3s22.html
The University of Chicago Press

The Papers of James Madison. Edited by William T. Hutchinson et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1962--77 (vols. 1--10); Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977--(vols. 11--).

© 1987 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2000
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