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REFERENCES.

Text in Revised Statutes of the United States (ed. 1878), 30. For the proceedings in Congress see the House and Senate Journals, 38th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The principal propositions submitted are collected in McPherson, Rebellion, 255-259. On the scope of the amendment see Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wallace, 36. See also Cox, Three Decades, chap. 16; Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, X, chap. 4.

ARTICLE XIII.

SEC. I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, save as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

SEC. 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by

appropriate legislation.

No. 49.

Proclamation declaring the Insurrection at an End

April 2, 1866

IN a message to the Senate December 18, 1865, in response to a resolution of December 12, President Johnson stated that the rebellion had been suppressed; "that the United States are in possession of every State in which the insurrection existed, and that, as far as it could be done, the courts of the United States have been restored, post-offices reëstablished, and steps taken to put into effective operation the revenue laws of the country." Various executive orders in regard to the blockade, commercial intercourse, habeas corpus, etc., preceded the proclamation of April 2. A similar proclamation of August 20 declared the insurrection in Texas at an end.

REFERENCES.

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Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XIV, 811–813. As to when the war ended see United States v. Anderson, 9 Wallace, 56, and The Protector, 12 ibid., 700.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A PROCLAMATION.

(The proclamation recites the proclamations of April 15 and 19 and August 16, 1861, July 1, 1862, and April 2, 1863, the resolutions of the House and Senate July 22 and 25, 1861, on the nature of the war, and the proclamation of June 13, 1865, declaring the insurrection in Tennessee to have been suppressed, and continues :)

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, and Florida, 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 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, in view of the before-recited premises, it is the manifest determination of the American people that no State, of its own will, has the right or the power to go out of, or separate itself from, or be separated from the American Union, and that therefore each State ought to remain and constitute an integral part of the United States;

And whereas the people of the several before-mentioned States have, in the manner aforesaid, given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in this sovereign and important resolution of national unity;

And whereas it is believed to be a fundamental principle of government that people who have revolted, and who have been overcome and subdued, must either be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends, or else they must be held by absolute military power, or devastated, so as to prevent them from ever again doing harm as enemies, which last-named policy is abhorrent to humanity and to freedom;

And whereas the Constitution of the United States provides for constituent communities only as States, and not as Territories, dependencies, provinces, or protectorates;

And whereas such constituent States must necessarily be, and by the Constitution and laws of the United States are made equals, and placed upon a like footing as to political rights, immunities, dignity, and power with the several States with which they are united;

And whereas the observance of political equality as a principle of right and justice is well calculated to encourage the people of the aforesaid States to be and become more and more constant and persevering in their renewed allegiance;

And whereas standing armies, military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 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 surpressing insurrection or rebellion;

And whereas the policy of the government of the United States, from the beginning of the insurrection to its overthrow and final suppression, has been in conformity with the principles herein set forth and enumerated;

Now, therefore, I, ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end, and is henceforth to be so regarded.

*

No. 50. First Civil Rights Act

April 9, 1866

A BILL "to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights and furnish the means of their vindication" was introduced in the Senate, January 5, 1866, by Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, and referred to the Committee on Judiciary. Amendments reported by the committee were agreed to on the 12th. February 1 an amendment submitted by Trumbull, regarding the citizenship of persons born in the United States, being the first part of section I of the act, was agreed to by a vote of 31 to 10, but the following day an amendment striking out the provision for the employment of military force was rejected, the vote being 12 to 24. The bill passed the Senate February 2, and the House, with further amendments, March 13, the vote in the House

being 111 to 38, 34 not voting. The Senate agreed to the House amendments. March 27 President Johnson vetoed the bill. The bill was passed over the veto by the Senate, after a long discussion, April 6, by a vote of 33 to 15, and by the House April 9, by a vote of 132 to 41, 21 not voting. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XIV, 27-29. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The text of the Senate bill as reported by the committee is in the Globe for January 12. The veto message is in the Globe and the Journals. For a report of February 19, 1867, on violations of the act, see Senate Exec. Doc. 29, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.; for State laws relating to freedmen see Senate Exec. Doc. 6, ibid. See also Dunning, Essays, 91-99.

An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their Vindication.

Be it enacted. That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That any person who, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any inhabitant of any State or Territory to the deprivation of any right secured or protected by this act, or to different punishment, pains, or penalties on account of such person having at any time been held in a condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,

or by reason of his color or race, than is prescribed for the punishment of white persons, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the district courts of the United States, within their respective districts, shall have, exclusively of the courts of the several States, cognizance of all crimes and offences committed against the provisions of this act, and also, concurrently with the circuit courts of the United States, of all causes, civil and criminal, affecting persons who are denied or cannot enforce in the courts or judicial tribunals of the State or locality where they may be any of the rights secured to them by the first section of this act; and if any suit or prosecution, civil or criminal, has been or shall be commenced in any State court, against any such person, for any cause whatsoever, or against any officer, civil or military, or other person, for any arrest or imprisonment, trespasses, or wrongs done or committed by virtue or under color of authority derived from this act or the act establishing a Bureau for the relief of Freedmen and Refugees, and all acts amendatory thereof, or for refusing to do any act upon the ground that it would be inconsistent with this act, such defendant shall have the right to remove such cause for trial to the proper district or circuit court in the manner prescribed by the "Act relating to habeas corpus and regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases," approved March three, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and all acts amendatory thereof. The jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters hereby conferred on the district and circuit courts of the United States shall be exercised and enforced in conformity with the laws of the United States, so far as such laws are suitable to carry the same into effect; but in all cases where such laws are not adapted to the object, or are deficient in the provisions necessary to furnish suitable remedies and punish offences against law, the common law, as modified and changed by the constitution and statutes of the State wherein

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