By the President of the United States of
America:
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, in and by the Constitution of the United States it is
provided that the President “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons
for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;” and
Whereas, a rebellion now exists, whereby the loyal State
governments of several States have for a long time been subverted and many
persons have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States;
and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason laws
have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscations of
property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein
stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby authorized at any
time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have
participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof, pardon
and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions as
he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and
Whereas, the Congressional declaration for limited and
conditional pardon accords with the well-established judicial exposition of the
pardoning power; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion the President of
the United States has issued several proclamations with provisions in regard to
the liberation of slaves; and
Whereas, it is now desired by some persons heretofore
engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and
to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective States:
Therefore,
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by
implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter
excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with
restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property
cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the
condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward
keep and maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for
permanent preservation and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:
"I, —— ——, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty
God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States and the union of the States thereunder, and
that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of
Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long
and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress, or by decision
of the Supreme Court, and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully
support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion
having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void
by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God."
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing
provisions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or
agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left judicial
stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall
have been, military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government
above the rank of colonel in the Army or of lieutenant in the Navy; all who
left seats in the U.S. Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned
commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States and afterward aided the
rebellion, and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or
white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war,
and which persons may have been found in the U.S. service as soldiers, seamen,
or in any other capacity.
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that
whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a
number of persons not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such
State at the Presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since
violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State
existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all
others, shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican and in
nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government
of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the
constitutional provision which declares that: “The United States shall
guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and
shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the
Legislature, or the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against
domestic violence.”
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any
provision which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the
freed people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent
freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a
temporary arrangement with their present condition, as a laboring, landless,
and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national Executive.
And it is suggested as not improper that, in constructing a
loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the
subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the
rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by
the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening
said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the nosy
State government.
To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this
proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no reference to
States wherein loyal State governments have all the while been maintained. And
for the same reason it may be proper to further say, that whether members sent
to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats constitutionally rests
exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the
Executive, and still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the
people of the States wherein the national authority has been suspended, and
loyal State governments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the
national authority and loyal State governments may be re-established within
said States or in any of them; and while the mode presented is the best the
Executive can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be understood
that no other possible mode would be acceptable.
Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the 8th day
of December, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America
the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
SOURCE: The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Series II, Volume 6 (Serial No. 119), p. 680-2
