the President of the United States can enter on the execution of his
office he is required to take an oath or affirmation in the following
words:


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.


The duty of defending so far as in him lies the integrity of the
Constitution would indeed have resulted from the very nature of his
office, but by thus expressing it in the official oath or affirmation,
which in this respect differs from that of any other functionary, the
founders of our Republic have attested their sense of its importance
and have given to it a peculiar solemnity and force. Bound to the
performance of this duty by the oath I have taken, by the strongest
obligations of gratitude to the American people, and by the ties which
unite my every earthly interest with the welfare and glory of my
country, and perfectly convinced that the discussion and passage of
the above-mentioned resolution were not only unauthorized by the
Constitution, but in many respects repugnant to its provisions and
subversive of the rights secured by it to other coordinate departments,
I deem it an imperative duty to maintain the supremacy of that sacred
instrument and the immunities of the department intrusted to my care
by all means consistent with my own lawful powers, with the rights of
others, and with the genius of our civil institutions. To this end I
have caused this my _solemn protest_ against the aforesaid proceedings
to be placed on the files of the executive department and to be