Whereas the Congress of the United States did by an act approved on
the 19th day of April, 1864, authorize the people of the Territory
of Nebraska to form a constitution and State government and for the
admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the
original States upon certain conditions in said act specified; and
Whereas said people did adopt a constitution conforming to the
provisions and conditions of said act and ask admission into the Union;
and
Whereas the Congress of the United States did on the 8th and 9th days
of February, 1867, in mode prescribed by the Constitution, pass a
further act for the admission of the State of Nebraska into the Union,
in which last-named act it was provided that it should not take effect
except upon the fundamental condition that within the State of Nebraska
there should be no denial of the elective franchise or of any other
right to any person by reason of race or color, excepting Indians not
taxed, and upon the further fundamental condition that the legislature
of said State, by a solemn public act, should declare the assent of
said State to the said fundamental condition and should transmit to
the President of the United States an authenticated copy of said act
of the legislature of said State, upon receipt whereof the President,
by proclamation, should forthwith announce the fact, whereupon said
fundamental condition should be held as a part of the organic law of
the State, and thereupon, and without any further proceeding on the
part of Congress, the admission of said State into the Union should
be considered as complete; and
Whereas within the time prescribed by said act of Congress of the 8th
and 9th of February, 1867, the legislature of the State of Nebraska did
pass an act ratifying the said act of Congress of the 8th and 9th of
February, 1867, and declaring that the aforenamed provisions of the
third section of said last-named act of Congress should be a part of
the organic law of the State of Nebraska; and
Whereas a duly authenticated copy of said act of the legislature of the
State of Nebraska has been received by me:
Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States of
America, do, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress
last herein named, declare and proclaim the fact that the fundamental
conditions imposed by Congress on the State of Nebraska to entitle that
State to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted and that
the admission of the said State into the Union is now complete.
In testimony whereof I have hereto set my hand and have caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of March, A.D. 1867, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-first.