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and that, therefore, each State ought to remain and constitute an integral part of the United States;

"And did further declare, in the same last-mentioned proclamation, that the several aforementioned States, excepting Texas, had, in the manner aforesaid, given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in this sovereign and important resolution of national unity; and

"WHEREAS, The President of the United States, in the same proclamation, did further declare that it is believed to be a fundamental principle of Government that the 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 President did, in the same proclamation, further declare that the Constitution of the United States provides for constituent communities only as States, and not as territories, dependencies, provinces, or protectorates;

"And further that 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 did further declare that the observance of political equality as a principle of right and justice is well calculated to encourage the people of the before-named States, except Texas, to be and to become more and more constant and persevering in their renewed allegiance; and

"WHEREAS, The President did further declare that standing armies, military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suspension 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 suppressing insurrection or rebellion;

"And the President did further, in the same proclamation, declare that the policy of the Government of the United States, from the beginning of the insurrection to its overthrow and final suppression, had been conducted in conformity with the principles in the last-named proclamation recited; and

"WHEREAS, The President, in the said prolamation of the thirteenth of June, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, upon the grounds therein stated and herein before recited, did then and there proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the several States before named, except in Texas, was at an end, and was henceforth to be so regarded; and

"WHEREAS, Subsequently to the said second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, the insurrection in the State of Texas has been completely and everywhere suppressed and ended, and the authority of the United States has been successfully and completely established in the said State of Texas, and now remains therein unrestricted and undisputed, and such of the proper United States officers as have been duly commissioned within the limits of the said State are now in the undisturbed exercise of their official functions; and

"WHEREAS, The laws can now be sustained and enforced in the said State of Texas by the proper civil authority, State or Federal; and the people of the said State of Texas, like the people of other States before named, are well and loyally disposed, and have conformed, or will conform, in their legislation to the condition of affairs growing out of the amendment of the Constitution of the United States prohibiting slavery within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States; and

'WHEREAS, All the reasons and conclusions set forth in regard to several States therein specially named now apply equally and in all respects to the State of Texas, as well as to the other States which had been involved in insurrection; and "WHEREAS, Adequate provision has been made by military orders to enforce the execution of the acts of Congress and the civil authorities, and secure obedience to the Constitution and laws of the United States within the State of Texas, if a resort to military force for such purpose should at any time become necessary:

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"Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the State of Texas is at an end, and is to be henceforth so regarded in that State, as in the other States before named, in which the said insurrection was proclaimed to be at an end by the aforesaid proclamation of the second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.

"And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end, and that peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States. of America.

"In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Washington, this twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-first.

"By the President:

"WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

The proclamation of April, 1866, was not to be construed as affecting martial law, or operating in any way on the "Freedmen's Bureau" in the proper discharge of its functions; nor was it to interfere with military commissions, or trials then in process or before organized.

CHAPTER XI.

DISBANDING THE GREAT ARMY-THE SOUTH, ITS GENERALS, MEN, MONEY, AND MANAGEMENT OF THE WAR-JEFFERSON DAVIS—STARTING THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION - PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S SENTIMENTS, THEORIES, AND PLANS.

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OWARD the close of May, 1865, preparations began to be made for mustering out of service the grand army of the Republic. No such army had been organized in modern times, and none so thoroughly and powerfully equipped in the history of the world, and it became a question in Europe as to what disposition could be made of this vast force; but no such question disturbed the people of this country. The army was composed, mainly, of citizens, men of families and homes, who had been fighting for their principles and country, and when they had won their cause, they were ready to return with joy to their former avocations. In the sight of monarchic Europe the dispersion of this vast army presented a grand moral spectacle difficult to be contemplated; but the work was soon done. In a day the victorious army melted away, and became a thing of the past. To the Government it left a burden and a task, the work of many years. To heal the wounds. of such a conflict was a difficult undertaking. To

care for the widow and orphan; to lift those the war had crushed, or made helpless; to reconstruct and reinvigorate exhausted and anarchic communities; and provide for the stupendous debt which a foolish and wicked Rebellion had made necessary, now became the cheerless and difficult task of the Government. In doing this work it was not to be expected there would be no mistakes. There had been errors in the conduct of the war, when men were most united for a great, common purpose; but now, when every imaginable and possible interest and passion would be involved, the case became appalling.

A page may here not inappropriately, perhaps, be devoted to, a mere glance at the conduct and final collapse of the "Confederacy." In the first year of the Rebellion, and especially at its outset, many of the most able men of the South entered what was termed the "Congress" and took part in the "government." But when the war had fairly begun, a new field was opened for ambition, and most of these men were struck with a desire for military glory. They entered the army. And how many of these politicians became soldiers? And where now is the glory obtained in fighting in such a cause? Its very mention is a source of ridicule or contempt in the greater part of the world.

The rebel "Congress" was soon passed over, mainly, to an inferior class of men, mostly unknown in the politics of the country. Lazy, unwise, and quarrelsome, they constituted, perhaps, the most incompetent and unworthy body of men who had ever assembled

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