United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, or modified, or held void by Congress, or by decree of the Supreme Court, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President, made during the existing rebellion, having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by the Supreme Court. So help me God.

The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are all who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers, or agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid rebellion; all who are or shall have been military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army and of lieutenant in the navy, and all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion.

All who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States and afterwards aided the rebellion, and all who have engaged in any way maltreating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that, whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one tenth in number of the votes cast in such States at the Presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being qualified a voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall reëstablish a State government which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive these under the benefit of the constitutional provision, which declares that the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, on application of the legislature, or the executive, where the legislature cannot be convened, and against domestic violence; and I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that any provisions which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed people of such States which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National Executive.

And it is suggested, as not improper, that in constructing a loyal State ·government in a State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the

rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government.

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the while been maintained.

As for the same reason it may be proper further to say, that whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive; and still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the people of the States wherein the national authority has been suspended and loyal State governments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal State governments may be established within such States, or in any of them; and while the mode presented is the best the Executive can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the eighth day of December, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

MILITARY GOVERNMENT

OF

HOSTILE TERRITORY

IN TIME OF WAR.

PREFACE TO MILITARY GOVERNMENT.

THE following pages on "Military Government of Hostile Territory in Time of War," were written early in 1864, in answer to a letter of the Hon. J. M. Ashley, M. C., of Ohio, to the Secretary of War (dated December 24, 1863), which enclosed the draft of a bill for a military provisional government over insurrectionary States, proposed by Mr. Ashley for consideration by the "Special Committee of the House on the Rebellious States." In that letter he requested the Secretary "to make any suggestions he might have to make," or, "if he had not time to make any, to submit the bill to the Solicitor of the War Department for his opinion." This communication, with the proposed bill, were accordingly referred, as requested, by the Secretary of War.

The subjects discussed are of great and growing importance. Clear and just views of the rights, powers and obligations of the Government are necessary to a wise and consistent administration of affairs in the insur rectionary districts, during their transition from open hostilities to their former relations to the Union. A careful regard, in the beginning, to the proper limitations of authority in the respective departments of this government, will be necessary in order to avoid embarrassment and confusion in the end; and a just appreciation of the war powers of the President will tend to relieve patriotic citizens from apprehension, even if Congress should, for the present, omit further legislation on these subjects.

The following chapters are only a development of the principles stated in the "WAR POWERS."

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 24, 1864.

W. W.