By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State_.
[H.R. 244, Thirty-eighth Congress, first session.]
AN ACT to guarantee to certain States whose governments have been
usurped or overthrown a republican form of government.
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That in the States declared
in rebellion against the United States the President shall, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint for each a provisional
governor, whose pay and emoluments shall not exceed that of a
brigadier-general of volunteers, who shall be charged with the civil
administration of such State until a State government therein shall be
recognized as hereinafter provided.
SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That so soon as the military
resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed in any such
State and the people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their
obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the United States the
provisional governor shall direct the marshal of the United States, as
speedily as may be, to name a sufficient number of deputies, and to
enroll all white male citizens of the United States resident in the
State in their respective counties, and to request each one to take the
oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and in his
enrollment to designate those who take and those who refuse to take that
oath, which rolls shall be forthwith returned to the provisional
governor; and if the persons taking that oath shall amount to a majority
of the persons enrolled in the State, he shall, by proclamation, invite
the loyal people of the State to elect delegates to a convention charged
to declare the will of the people of the State relative to the
reestablishment of a State government, subject to and in conformity with
the Constitution of the United States.
SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That the convention shall consist
of as many members as both houses of the last constitutional State
legislature, apportioned by the provisional governor among the counties,
parishes, or districts of the State, in proportion to the white
population returned as electors by the marshal in compliance with the
provisions of this act. The provisional governor shall, by proclamation,
declare the number of delegates to be elected by each county, parish, or
election district; name a day of election not less than thirty days
thereafter; designate the places of voting in each county, parish, or
district, conforming as nearly as may be convenient to the places used
in the State elections next preceding the rebellion; appoint one or more
commissioners to hold the election at each place of voting, and provide
an adequate force to keep the peace during the election.
SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That the delegates shall be elected
by the loyal white male citizens of the United States of the age of 21
years, and resident at the time in the county, parish, or district in
which they shall offer to vote, and enrolled as aforesaid, or absent
in the military service of the United States, and who shall take and
subscribe the oath of allegiance to the United States in the form
contained in the act of Congress of July 2, 1862; and all such citizens
of the United States who are in the military service of the United
States shall vote at the headquarters of their respective commands,
under such regulations as may be prescribed by the provisional governor
for the taking and return of their votes; but no person who has held or
exercised any office, civil or military, State or Confederate, under the
rebel usurpation, or who has voluntarily borne arms against the United
States, shall vote or be eligible to be elected as delegate at such
election.
SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That the said commissioners, or
either of them, shall hold the election in conformity with this act,
and, so far as may be consistent therewith, shall proceed in the manner
used in the State prior to the rebellion. The oath of allegiance
shall be taken and subscribed on the poll book by every voter in the
form above prescribed, but every person known by or proved to the
commissioners to have held or exercised any office, civil or military,
State or Confederate, under the rebel usurpation, or to have voluntarily
borne arms against the United States, shall be excluded though he offer
to take the oath; and in case any person who shall have borne arms
against the United States shall offer to vote, he shall be deemed to
have borne arms voluntarily unless he shall prove the contrary by the
testimony of a qualified voter. The poll book, showing the name and oath
of each voter, shall be returned to the provisional governor by the
commissioners of election, or the one acting, and the provisional
governor shall canvass such returns and declare the person having the
highest number of votes elected.
SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That the provisional governor
shall, by proclamation, convene the delegates elected as aforesaid at
the capital of the State on a day not more than three months after the
election, giving at least thirty days' notice of such day. In case
the said capital shall in his judgment be unfit, he shall in his
proclamation appoint another place. He shall preside over the
deliberations of the convention and administer to each delegate, before
taking his seat in the convention, the oath of allegiance to the United
States in the form above prescribed.
SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That the convention shall
declare on behalf of the people of the State their submission to
the Constitution and laws of the United States, and shall adopt the
following provisions, hereby prescribed by the United States in the
execution of the constitutional duty to guarantee a republican form of
government to every State, and incorporate them in the constitution of
the State; that is to say:
First. No person who has held or exercised any office, civil or military
(except offices merely ministerial and military offices below the grade
of colonel), State or Confederate, under the usurping power, shall vote
for or be a member of the legislature or governor.
Second. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, and the freedom of
all persons is guaranteed in said State.
Third. No debt, State or Confederate, created by or under the sanction
of the usurping power shall be recognized or paid by the State.
SEC. 8. _And be it further enacted_, That when the convention shall have
adopted those provisions it shall proceed to reestablish a republican
form of government and ordain a constitution containing those
provisions, which, when adopted, the convention shall by ordinance
provide for submitting to the people of the State entitled to vote under
this law, at an election to be held in the manner prescribed by the act
for the election of delegates, but at a time and place named by the
convention, at which election the said electors, and none others, shall
vote directly for or against such constitution and form of State
government. And the returns of said election shall be made to the
provisional governor, who shall canvass the same in the presence of the
electors, and if a majority of the votes cast shall be for the
constitution and form of government, he shall certify the same, with a
copy thereof, to the President of the United States, who, after
obtaining the assent of Congress, shall, by proclamation, recognize the
government so established, and none other, as the constitutional
government of the State; and from the date of such recognition, and not
before, Senators and Representatives and electors for President and
Vice-President may be elected in such State, according to the laws of
the State and of the United States.
SEC. 9. _And be it further enacted_, That if the convention shall refuse
to reestablish the State government on the conditions aforesaid the
provisional governor shall declare it dissolved; but it shall be the
duty of the President, whenever he shall have reason to believe that a
sufficient number of the people of the State entitled to vote under this
act, in number not less than a majority of those enrolled as aforesaid,
are willing to reestablish a State government on the conditions
aforesaid, to direct the provisional governor to order another election
of delegates to a convention for the purpose and in the manner
prescribed in this act, and to proceed in all respects as hereinbefore
provided, either to dissolve the convention or to certify the State
government reestablished by it to the President.
SEC. 10. _And be it further enacted_, That until the United States shall
have recognized a republican form of State government the provisional
governor in each of said States shall see that this act and the laws of
the United States and the laws of the State in force when the State
government was overthrown by the rebellion are faithfully executed
within the State; but no law or usage whereby any person was heretofore
held in involuntary servitude shall be recognized or enforced by any
court or officer in such State; and the laws for the trial and
punishment of white persons shall extend to all persons, and jurors
shall have the qualifications of voters under this law for delegates to
the convention. The President shall appoint such officer provided for by
the laws of the State when its government was overthrown as he may find
necessary to the civil administration of the State, all which officers
shall be entitled to receive the fees and emoluments provided by the
State laws for such officers.
SEC. 11. _And be it further enacted_, That until the recognition of a
State government as aforesaid the provisional governor shall, under such
regulations as he may prescribe, cause to be assessed, levied, and
collected, for the year 1864 and every year thereafter, the taxes
provided by the laws of such State to be levied during the fiscal year
preceding the overthrow of the State government thereof, in the manner
prescribed by the laws of the State, as nearly as may be; and the
officers appointed as aforesaid are vested with all powers of levying
and collecting such taxes, by distress or sale, as were vested in any
officers or tribunal of the State government aforesaid for those
purposes. The proceeds of such taxes shall be accounted for to the
provisional governor and be by him applied to the expenses of the
administration of the laws in such State, subject to the direction of
the President, and the surplus shall be deposited in the Treasury of the
United States to the credit of such State, to be paid to the State upon
an appropriation therefor to be made when a republican form of
government shall be recognized therein by the United States.
SEC. 12. _And be it further enacted_, That all persons held to
involuntary servitude or labor in the States aforesaid are hereby
emancipated and discharged therefrom, and they and their posterity shall
be forever free. And if any such persons or their posterity shall be
restrained of liberty under pretense of any claim to such service or
labor, the courts of the United States shall, on _habeas corpus_,
discharge them.
SEC. 13. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person declared free
by this act, or any law of the United States or any proclamation of the
President, be restrained of liberty with intent to be held in or reduced
to involuntary servitude or labor, the person convicted before a court
of competent jurisdiction of such act shall be punished by fine of not
less than $1,500 and be imprisoned not less than five nor more than
twenty years.
SEC. 14. _And be it further enacted_, That every person who shall
hereafter hold or exercise any office, civil or military (except offices
merely ministerial and military offices below the grade of colonel), in
the rebel service, State or Confederate, is hereby declared not to be a
citizen of the United States.