Then, as now, a mere 35 words – the barebones oath of the presidency – is all the U. S. Constitution actually requires.

a duck blind

HE DESCENDED, signifieth a voluntarie motion, where as the bodie dead hath neither WILL nor MOTION. […] Though therefore this exposition cannot be charged with falsitie, for Christ was trulie buried; yet may it not bee endured by reason of […] the improprietie and incoherence of the worde, that a deade corps should descend […]

He spoke with the deep rich burr of his race and with a structure of speech that I cannot reproduce here.