Oath Required Disqualified Nearly Every Able-Bodied Man In County – Called Themselves “Deputies”
From the 1938 centennial edition of The Times-Register
A copy of the oath which office-holders were required to take following war has been preserved at the office of the clerk of court and it is seen by this oath that the holder of any office had to make an affidavit that he never took up arms against the United States government or aided any hostile government in any manner.
A portion of this oath reads as follows:
“I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostilities thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the function of any office whatever, under any authority, in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto.”
This oath was printed and in addition to the above there was the regular oath of supporting the Unites States constitution.
Offices Declared Vacant
This was the order received here by Captain H. P. Grayson of the United States army when the town was under martial law. All county offices were declared vacant and this intent of the law was to have none but who could quality by taking the above oath hold office. The law provided that appointive or elective officers had to take the oath.
It will be seen that this oath disqualified practically every man in the county but officers for the county were elected and qualified.
Most of the communications addressed by the military authorities to the local authorities were sent to the clerk of court. In one of these communications the addressee was “William McCauley, deputy clerk of court”. This leads to the presumption that the officers got around the law by calling themselves deputies for Mr. McCauley was clerk of court at that time.
Three Men Exempted
Another order was received here in which it was stated that the restrictions placed upon office holders should not apply to Zebulon Boon, Alfred Dillard and Jacob L. Frier.
On December 23, 1869, an order was received here directing the county authorities to place the colored marriages on record.
Captain H. F. Grayson who was in command of the armed forces here sent the following order to the clerk of court in June of 1869:
“The county court of Roanoke county is hereby ordered to convene at the courthouse in Salem on July 3, 1869, at 10 a.m. for the purpose of deciding on the bonds and qualifications of James M. Landon as commissioner of revenue for Roanoke county.”
Evidently, Mr. Landon did not qualify in full for his name is not on the record books as commissioner of the revenue until 1876. He probably acted in that capacity but technically was not the commissioner of the revenue.
In May of 1869 the clerk of court here received from Lieut. Col. Byrd Lynchburg, a copy of the election districts in this county. What comprised these election district was not stated as it evidently was on a separate paper which has not been preserved.
Replaces Capt. Brownson
On July 13, 1869 an order came through appointing Captain Charles Snyder, U. S. Army, to replace Captain Henry F. Brownson as commander of the local detachment.
Another order received by the clerk of court from the authorities was one direction the court to fill vacancies in county offices according to law. Just what that provision was is not given.
On Jan. 15, 1870 an order came from Richmond appointing Hiram L. Hunt as commissioner in chancery replacing Mr. F. Johnson.
From the above orders it will be seen that the entire state was under military rule and that the army officers could bear down on the local authorities in a way that would have been most distressing if they chose the compel the local authorities to live up to the letter of the law.
However, the county and circuit courts carried on here as they did in the pre-war days so that it is presumed that the army authorities did not interfere with the administration of the courts to a great extent. An election was held here on August 1, 1865 and the officers elected, or most of them, seem to have served.
– Prepared by Lingjie Gu
