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
Alabama 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 Alabama 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 Lewis E. Parsons, of Alabama, provisional governor of the State
of Alabama, 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 Alabama 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 Alabama in force immediately before the 11th day 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.