Whereas the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution of
the United States declares that the United States shall guarantee to
every State in the Union a republican form of government and shall
protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence; and
Whereas the President of the United States is by the Constitution made
Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, as well as chief civil
executive officer of the United States, and is bound by solemn oath
faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and
to take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and
Whereas the rebellion which has been waged by a portion of the people of
the United States against the properly constituted authorities of the
Government thereof in the most violent and revolting form, but whose
organized and armed forces have now been almost entirely overcome, has
in its revolutionary progress deprived the people of the State of
Mississippi of all civil government; and
Whereas it becomes necessary and proper to carry out and enforce the
obligations of the United States to the people of Mississippi in
securing them in the enjoyment of a republican form of government:
Now, therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed upon
me by the Constitution of the United States and for the purpose of
enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a State government
whereby justice may be established, domestic tranquillity insured, and
loyal citizens protected in all their rights of life, liberty, and
property, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States and
Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do
hereby appoint William L. Sharkey, of Mississippi, provisional governor
of the State of Mississippi, whose duty it shall be, at the earliest
practicable period, to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be
necessary and proper for convening a convention composed of delegates
to be chosen by that portion of the people of said State who are loyal
to the United States, and no others, for the purpose of altering or
amending the constitution thereof, and with authority to exercise within
the limits of said State all the powers necessary and proper to enable
such loyal people of the State of Mississippi to restore said State to
its constitutional relations to the Federal Government and to present
such a republican form of State government as will entitle the State to
the guaranty of the United States therefor and its people to protection
by the United States against invasion, insurrection, and domestic
violence: _Provided_, That in any election that may be hereafter
held for choosing delegates to any State convention as aforesaid no
person shall be qualified as an elector or shall be eligible as a member
of such convention unless he shall have previously taken and subscribed
the oath of amnesty as set forth in the President's proclamation of
May 29, A.D. 1865, and is a voter qualified as prescribed by the
constitution and laws of the State of Mississippi in force immediately
before the 9th of January, A.D. 1861, the date of the so-called
ordinance of secession; and the said convention, when convened, or
the legislature that may be thereafter assembled, will prescribe the
qualification of electors and the eligibility of persons to hold office
under the constitution and laws of the State--a power the people of the
several States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised
from the origin of the Government to the present time.