s 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 exclusive 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 [L.S.] the independence of the United States of
America the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President.
WM. H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S AMNESTY PROCLAMATION.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

_Whereas_, The President of the United States, on the 8th day of
December, 1863, did, with the object of suppressing the existing
rebellion, to induce all persons to lay down their arms, to return to
their loyalty, and to restore the authority of the United States, issue
proclamations offering amnesty and pardon to certain persons who had
directly or by implication, engaged in said rebellion; and

_Whereas_, Many persons who had so engaged in the late rebellion have,
since the issuance of said proclamation, failed or neglected to take the
benefits offered thereby; and

_Whereas_, Many persons who have been justly deprived of all claim to
amnesty and pardon thereunder, by reason of their participation directly
or by implication in said rebellion, and continued in hostility to the
Government of the United States since the date of said proclamation,
now desire to apply for and obtain amnesty and pardon:

To the end, therefore, that the authority of the Government of the
United States may be restored, and that peace, and order, and freedom
may be established, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
do proclaim and declare, that I hereby grant to all persons who have
directly or indirectly participated in the exist