Chapter CLIII. *to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States.* March 2, 1866
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CHAP. CLIII.— An Act *to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States.* March 2, 1866. Preamble.Whereas no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exists in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, See Vol. xv. pp. 2, 14, 29, 30.South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State governments can be legally established:
Therefore, *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * Certain rebel States to be divided into military districts and subjected to military authority.First District.Second District.Third District.Fourth District.Fifth District.President to assign army officer to command each district.Military force to be detailed.Commanders of districts, their powers and duties.Local civil tribunals.Military tribunals.State interference declared null.Persons under military arrest to be speedily tried.Punishment.Sentences of military tribunals.
That said rebel States shall be divided into military districts and made subject to the military authority of the United States as hereinafter prescribed, and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first district; North Carolina and South Carolina the second district; Georgia, Alabama, and Florida the third district; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth district. Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted, *That it shall be the duty of the President to assign to the command of each of said districts an officer of the army, not below the rank of brigadier-general, and to detail a sufficient military force to enable such officer to perform his duties and enforce his authority within the district to which he is assigned.
Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted, *That it shall be the duty of each officer assigned as aforesaid, to protect all persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace and criminals; and to this end he may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or, when in his judgment it may be necessary for the trial of offenders, he shall have power to organize military commissions or tribunals for that purpose, and all interference under color of State authority with the exercise of military authority under this act, shall be null and void.
Sec. 4. *And be it further enacted, *That all persons put under military arrest by virtue of this act shall be tried without unnecessary delay, and no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted, and no sentence of any military commission or tribunal hereby authorized, affecting the life or liberty of any person, shall be executed until it is approved by the officer in command of the district, and the laws and regulations for the govern- THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 153. 1867. 429 ment of the army shall not be affected by this act, except in so far as they conflict with its provisions: *Provided,* That no sentence of death underSentences of death. the provisions of this act shall be carried into effect without the approval of the President.
Sec. 5. *And be it further enacted, *That when the people of any one ofConditions upon which such States shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress.Delegates to conventions to form constitution, by whom elected.Provisions of constitutions as to the elective franchise.Constitutions to be ratified by popular vote;to be approved by Congress.The States to adopt the amendment to the Constitution.*Ante*, p. 358.Senators and representatives to be admitted upon taking the oath, and this act becomes inoperative.Proviso.Certain persons not eligible as members of the constitutional convention. said rebel States shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State, twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who have been resident in said State for one year previous to the day of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony at common law, and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications herein stated for electors of delegates, and when such constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification who are qualified as electors for delegates, and when such constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same, and when said State, by a vote of its legislature elected under said constitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen, and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and senators and representatives shall he admitted therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the preceding sections of this act shall be inoperative in said State: *Provided,* That no person excluded from the privilege of holding office by said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, shall be eligible to election as a member of the convention to frame a constitution for any of said rebel States, nor shall any such person vote for members of such convention.
Sec. 6. *And be it further enacted, *That, until the people of said rebelThe civil government of such States to be provisional only until they are admitted to representation.Who may vote in elections to office under provisional governments, and who are eligible to office.Vol. xv. p. 4. States shall be by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil governments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same; and in all elections to any office under such provisional governments all persons shall be entitled to vote, and none others, who are entitled to vote, under the provisions of the fifth section of this act; and no person shall be eligible to any office under any such provisional governments who would be disqualified from holding office under the provisions of the third article of said constitutional amendment.
SCHUYLER COLFAX, *Speaker of the House of Representatives.* LA FAYETTE S. FOSTER, *President of the Senate, pro tempore.* In the House of Representatives, March 2, 1867. } The President of the United States having returned to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, the bill entitled “An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States,” with his objections thereto, the House of Representatives proceeded, in pursuance of the Constitution, to reconsider the same; and *Resolved, * That the said bill do pass, two thirds of the House of Representatives agreeing to pass the same.
Attest: EDWD. McPHERSON, *Clerk of H. R. U. S.* 430 THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 153, 154. 1867. In Senate of the United States March 2, 1867. } The Senate having proceeded, in pursuance of the Constitution, to reconsider the bill entitled “An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States,” returned to the House of Representatives by the President of the United States, with his objections, and sent by the House of Representatives to the Senate, with the message of the President returning the bill: *Resolved, * That the bill do pass, two thirds of the Senate agreeing to pass the same.
Attest: J. W. FORNEY, *Secretary of the Senate.*