CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



247 



State ; but no law or usage whereby any person was 

 heretofore held in involuntary servitude shall be rec- 

 ognized or enforced by any court or officer in such 

 State ; and the laws for the trial and punishment of 

 white persons shall extend to all persons, and jurors 

 shall have the qualifications of voters under this law 

 for delegates to the convention. The President shall 

 appoint such officers provided for by the laws of the 

 State when its government was overthrown as he 

 may find necessary to the civil administration of the 

 State, all which officers shall be entitled to receive 

 the fees and emoluments provided by the State laws 

 for such officers. 



SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That until the rec- 

 ognition of a State government, as aforesaid, the 

 provisional Governor shall, under such regulations 

 as he may prescribe, cause to be assessed, levied, and 

 collected, for the year 1865, and every year there- 

 after, the taxes prescribed by the laws of such State 

 to be levied during the fiscal year preceding the over- 

 throw of the State government thereof, in the man- 

 ner prescribed by the laws of the State, as nearly as 

 may be ; and the officers appointed, as aforesaid, are 

 vested with all powers of levying and collecting 

 such taxes, by distress or sale, as were vested in any 

 officers or tribunal of the State government aforesaid 

 for those purposes. The proceeds of such taxes shall 

 be accounted for to the provisional governor, and be 

 by him applied to the expenses of the administration 

 of the laws in such State, subject to the direction of 

 the President, and the surplus shall be deposited in 

 the Treasury of the United States to the credit of 

 such State, to be paid to the State upon an appropri- 

 ation therefor, to be made when a republican form 

 of government shall be recognized therein by the 

 United States. 



SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons 

 held to involuntary servitude or labor in the States 

 or parts of States in which such persons have been 

 declared free by any proclamation of the President, 

 are hereby emancipated and discharged therefrom, 

 and they and their posterity shall be forever free ; 

 and if any such person or their posterity shall be re- 

 strained of liberty, under pretence of any claim to 

 such service or labor, the courts of the United States 

 shall on habeas corpus discharge them. 



SEC. 5. And be ^t further enacted, That if any per- 

 son declared free by this act, or any law of the 

 United States, or any proclamation of the President, 

 be restrained of liberty, with intent to be held in or 

 reduced to involuntary servitude or labor, the person 

 convicted before a court of competent jurisdiction of 

 such act shall be punished by fine of not less than 

 $1,500, and be imprisoned not" less than five nor more 

 than twenty years. 



SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That every per- 

 son who shall hereafter hold or exercise any office, 

 civil or military, except offices merely ministerial 

 and military offices below the grade of colonel in the 

 rebel service, State or confederate, is hereby de- 

 ctared not to be a citizen of the United States. 



SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That so soon as 

 the military resistance to the United States shall 

 have been suppressed in any State, and the people 

 thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obe- 

 dience to the Constitution and the laws of the United 

 States, the provisional governor shall direct the mar- 

 shal of the United States, as speedily as may be, to 

 name a sufficient number of deputies, and to enroll 

 all white male citizens of the United States resident 

 in the State in their respective counties, and to re- 

 quest each one to take the oath to support the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, and in his enrolment 

 to designate those who take and those who refuse to 

 take tliat oath, which rolls shall be forthwith re- 

 turned to the provisional governor ; and if the per- 

 sons taking that oath shall, together with the citizens 

 of the United States from such State in the military 

 or naval service of the United States, amount to a 

 majority of the persons enrolled in the State, he 



shall, by proclamation, invite the loyal people of the 

 State to elect delegates to a convention charged to 

 declare the will of the people of the State relative to 

 the reestablishment or a State government, subject 

 to and in conformity with the Constitution of the 

 United States. 



SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the conven- 

 tion shall consist ofas many members as both houses 

 of the last constitutional State Legislature, appor- 

 tioned by the provisional governor among the 

 counties, parishes, or districts of the State in pro- 

 portion to the population enrolled by the marshal, in 

 compliance with the provisions of this act, or in the 

 military or naval service of the United States, as 

 aforesaid. The provisional governor shall, by proc- 

 lamation, declare the number of delegates to be 

 elected by each county, parish, or election district ; 

 name a day of election, not less than thirty days 

 thereafter ; designate the places of voting in each 

 county, parish, or district, conforming as nearly as 

 may be convenient to the places used in the State 

 elections next preceding the rebellion ; appoint one 

 or more commissioners to hold the election at each 

 place of voting, and provide an adequate force to 

 keep the peace during the election. 



SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the del- 

 egates shall be elected by the loyal male citizens 

 aforesaid of the United States of the age of twenty- 

 one years, and resident in the county, parish, or dis- 

 trict in which they shall offer to vote, or in the mil- 

 itary or naval service of the United States, and who 

 shall take and subscribe the oath of allegiance to the 

 United States in the form contained in the act of 

 Congress of July 2, 1862; and all citizens of the 

 United States who are in the military or naval service 

 of the United States shall vote at the headquarters 

 of their respective commands, under such regulations 

 as may be prescribed by the provisional governor for 

 the taking and return of their votes ; but no person 

 who has held or exercised any office, civil or mil- 

 itary, State or confederate, under the rebel usurpa- 

 tion, or who has voluntarily borne arms against the 

 United States, shall vote or be eligible to be elected 

 as delegate at such election. 



SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the said 

 commissioners, or either of them, shall hold the elec- 

 tion in conformity with this act, and, so far as may 

 be consistent therewith, shall proceed in the manner 

 used in the State prior to the rebellion. The oath of 

 allegiance shall be taken and subscribed on the poll- 

 book by every voter in the form above prescribed, 

 but every person known by or proved to the com- 

 missioners to have held or exercised any office, civil or 

 military, State or confederate, under the rebel usur- 

 pation, or to have voluntarily borne arms against the 

 United States, shall be excluded, though he offer to 

 take the oath ; and in case any person who shall have 

 borne arms against the United States shall offer to 

 vote, he shall be deemed to have borne arms volun- 

 tarily unless he shall prove the contrary by the tes- 

 timony of a qualified voter. The poll-book, showing 

 the name and oath of each voter, shall be returned 

 to the provisional governor by the commissioners of 

 election or the one acting, and the provisional gov- 

 ernor shall canvass such returns, and declare the per- 

 son having the highest number of votes elected. 



SEC. 11. And be it further enacted. That the provis- 

 ional governor shall', by proclamation, convene the 

 delegates elected as aforesaid, at the capital of the 

 State, on a day not more than three months after the 

 election, giving at least thirty days' notice of such 

 day. In case the said capital shall in his judgment 

 be unfit, he shall in his proclamation appoint another 

 place. He shall preside over the deliberations of the 

 convention, and administer to each delegate, before 

 taking his seat in the convention, the oath of alle- 

 giance to the United States in the form hereinbefore 

 prescribed. 



SEC. 12. And be it further enacted. That the con- 

 vention shall declare, on behalf of the people of the 



