Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 15.djvu/731

 APPENDIX. ggg N 0. 3. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Sept. 7, 1867. A PBOCLAMATION. WHEREAS, in the month of July, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, the two Houses of Congress, with extraordinary ummimity, solemnly declared that the war then existing was not waged on the part of the Government in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overtbrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of the States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution. and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired, and that as soon as these objects should be accomplished the war ought to cease; And whereas the President of the United States, on the eighth day of December, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred aud sixty-three, and on the twenty-sixth day of March, anno Domino one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, did, with the objects of suppressing the then existing rebellion, of inducing all persons to return to their loyalty, and of restoring the authority of the United States, issue proclamations offering amnest and pardon to all persons who had directly or indirectly participated in the then existing rebellion, except as in those proclamations was specified and reserved; And whereas the President of the United States did, on the twenty-ninth day of May, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, issue a further proclamation with the same objects before mentioned, and to the end that the authority of the Government of the United States might be restored, and that peace, order, and freedom might be established, and the President did, by the said last-mentioned proclamation, proclaim and declare that he thereby granted to all persons who had directly or indirectly participated in the then existing rebellion, except as therein excepted, amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and except in certain cases where legal proceedings had been instituted, but upon condition that such persons should take and subscribe an oath therein prescribed, which oath should be registered for permanent preservation; And whereas, in and by the said last-mentioned proclamation of the twenty-ninth day of May, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five. fourteen extensive classes of persons, therein specially described, were altogether excepted and excluded from the benefits thereof; And whereas the President of the United States did, on the second day of April, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, issue a proclamation declaring that tbe insurrection was at an end, and was thenceforth to be so regarded; And whereas there now exists no organized armed resistance of misguided citizens or others to the authority of the United States in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas, and the laws can be sustained and enforced therein by the proper civil authority, State or Federal, and the people of said States are well and loyally disposed, and have conformed, or, 1f permitted to do so, will conform in their legislation to the condition of affairs growing out of the amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting slavery within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States ; And whereas there no longer exists any reasonable ground to apprehend, within the States which were involved in the late rebellion, any renewal thereof, or any unlawful resistance by the people of said States to the Constitution and laws of the United States; And whereas large standing armies, military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and the right of trial by jury, are, in time of peace, dangerous to public liberty, incompatible with the individual rights of the citizen, contrary to the genius and spirit of our free institutions, and exhaustive of the national resources, and ought not, therefore, to be sanctioned or allowed, except in cases of actual necessity for repelling invasion or surppessing insurrection or rebellion; And whereas a retaliatory or vindictive policy, attended by unnecessary disqualifications, pains, penalties, coniiscutions, and dnsfranchisements, now, as