A Bill

To enforce obedience to the act of Congress entitled “An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States.”

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the several commanders assigned to command of the respective military districts established by the act of Congress entitled “An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States,” were by said act, and they are hereby, authorized to exercise full and complete military authority within their respective districts for the purposes specified in said act, and to that end the aforesaid district commanders were and are vested with power and authority by virtue whereof they might lawfully remove any and all persons claiming or pretending to exercise any official authority within said districts, and appoint others in their place; and also to prescribe rules and regulations for the administration of civil or criminal justice in courts and all civil tribunals, as in their judgment might be required, for the protection of life, liberty, and property, and the suppression of insurrection or disorder within their respective commands; and also might lawfully take charge and possession of all public property, rights, credits, and effects found in the hands of persons claiming to hold or administer the same as officers under the color of State laws or authority; and all removals and appointments heretofore made, or that may hereafter be made by said military commanders, are hereby approved, ratified, and confirmed; and all appointments, commissions, powers, and authority, executive, legislative, or judicial, heretofore conferred or attempted to be conferred upon any persons as State officers within the rebel States and military districts specified in said act of Congress first above-mentioned, are hereby annulled and vacated. And it shall not be lawful for any person within any of said States and districts to exercise or attempt to exercise any official power, authority, or jurisdiction as a State officer, unless upon the written permission or authority of the district commander, a copy whereof shall be transmitted by the commander to the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives; and if without such permission any person shall, under any color or pretext of any appointment or commission whatsoever, exercise or attempt to exercise any official power, authority, or jurisdiction as a State officer in any of said military districts, such person shall be deemed guilty or creating disorder and inciting insurrection, and on conviction may be sentenced to such fine and imprisonment as the military commission shall deem proper.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all persons who voluntarily participated in the rebellion recently existing in the States constituting the military districts aforesaid were, by their own crime, disfranchised and disqualified to exercise or enjoy any political or civil right or franchise whatever; and the act of voluntary rebellion did operate as and amount to the disfranchisement meant in the said act of Congress above mentioned. And all persons who, at any time prior to the rebellion, held any office, civil or military, under the United States, and had taken an official oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and afterwards voluntarily participated in the rebellion, were, and are disfranchised by said act of Congress, and were so meant and intended to be disfranchised. And no person shall be held to be a qualified voter or lawfully registered under said act, supplementary to said act, who participated voluntarily in the rebellion. And the boards of registration are authorized and required to hear evidence and determine upon the proofs that may be offered, the qualification of any person claiming to be registered as a voter or claiming to vote, notwithstanding such person may have taken the oath prescribed by said supplementary act; and any person who shall falsely take said oath or swear falsely touching any matter before said boards, or who shall offer himself for registry, having voluntarily participated in the rebellion, may be tried, convicted, and punished by fine and imprisonment by the sentence of military commission; and if any person who voluntarily participated in the rebellion shall offer his vote at any election to be held under said acts, such vote may be challenged and rejected, notwithstanding the person offering the same may have procured himself to be registered as a qualified voter; and any person so offering his vote, having voluntarily participated in the rebellion, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and may be prosecuted and punished by indictment or before a military commission, and if convicted shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of not less ten years. All military and militia officers, and all persons who acted as officers in civil service, either executive, legislative, or judicial, and all who, as members of State conventions, voted to secede from the federal Union, shall be held to have voluntarily participated in the rebellion, and be disqualified to be registered as voters under said acts of Congress. And after the first day of September next ensuing, the district commander and the boards of registry shall, within thirty days next ensuing, revise and correct the respective registry lists, and strike therefrom the name of any person or persons who shall have voluntarily participated in the rebellion, or shall appear subject to any other disqualification as a voter, specified in the act of Congress and supplementary act aforesaid. And the registry being so revised and corrected, an election shall immediately be ordered at such time after thirty days from the correction of the registry as shall be fixed by the district commander, not later than the twenty-fifth day of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. Notice of the time so fixed for the election shall be published for thirty days in all newspapers within said military districts, and the election be held accordingly, and all oaths or affirmations administered by the boards of registration, or any member thereof, or by any officer or person authorized by the district commander to administer oaths in the execution of the acts aforesaid, shall be deemed and held to have been lawfully administered by competent authority.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That no bill in chancery shall be entertained, nor shall any writ of injunction or other writ of subpoena be issued by any court of the United States or any judge thereof, to restrain or interfere with any district commander heretofore assigned to command in any of said military districts, or against any military officer, or other person acting under the direction of a district commander in the execution of said acts of Congress. And the military commanders heretofore assigned in said districts shall not be relieved, removed, or suspended in their commands without the advice and consent of the Senate.

• H. R. 118 (introduced on 1867-07-09 00:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e731256) [This document]

• H. R. 118 (introduced on 1867-07-09 00:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e731256) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]