on june 16, 1864, the united states congress passed a law that would give full, equal pay to any soldiers who had been free men as of april 19, 1861. not all the soldiers qualified; some had still been slaves at this time. colonel hallowell, a quaker, decided that because he did not believe in slavery, he could have all the soldiers swear that they were free men on april 19, 1861. before being given their back pay, the entire regiment was given what became known as "the quaker oath". colonel hallowell carefully wrote the oath to say: "you do solemnly swear that you owed no man unrequited labor unpaid work on or before the 19th day of april 1861. so help you god".