THE UNITED STATES IS STILL A BRITISH COLONY
PART 3

Will the real government please stand up!

9/05/97

After writing British Colony parts 1 & 2, I was amazed how some people reacted, when confronted with information that goes against their prior programming. It is as if to even consider the possibility that their belief system may be incorrect, was a threat to their mental well being. They were going to deny any truth that threatens their belief structure. The good news is those with such a reaction were of the minority. This is promising, because it shows Americans can still think past years of incomplete teaching concerning our history. Those in the negative believe the information had to be bogus and they could not believe the government could wrong them.

So this third part is for them, to show them that government has and does lie to them and violates their trust on major issues. As always this information and supporting documents, are given so the reader can form their own opinion. Other writers, I will mention one since he uses a pen name, the Informer, has also done extensive research on this subject and has been forced to come to the same conclusions. (Check out the latest work of the Informer, his new book called, THE NEW HISTORY OF AMERICA.)

The information the Informer and I have found is so clear and undeniable, even the doubting Thomas will have to face reality. Not to make us right, but for America to become aware of lost history, that neither of us formed, but are willing to be criticized in its reporting to correct great error.

Guide to the Footnotes:

1. Quotes on the fraudulent ramification of the 14th. Amendment.
2. Tulane Law Review vol. 28 1953, The Dubious Origin Of The
Fourteenth Amendment, by Walter J. Suthon, Jr.
3. Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867.
4. Reconstruction Act of March 11, 1868.
5. Reconstruction Act of March 23, 1867.
6. Reconstruction Act of July 19, 1867.
7. President Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction.
8. Veto message by President Johnson, March 2, 1867.
9. Gen. Orders No. 100 by President Lincoln, April 24 1863.
10. Court cases on Conquest and Military Occupation.
11. Letter I wrote to a local sheriff, August 27, 1995.
12. New Jersey's removal of their ratification of the 14th
Amendment.
13. Expose the fraud the only available remedy, example.
14. Addendum

I will begin with the touch stone of the patriot community, the Fourteenth Amendment. Everyone knows about the citizenship issue. I raised another issue concerning the 4th section of the Fourteenth Amendment in British Colony part 1, and issues regarding sec. 3, in court documents found in Footnote 13.  Doubting Thomas think this is a conspiracy theory. In the new propaganda movie called "Conspiracy Theory," the establishment wants you to think that anyone that believes there is someone behind the scenes calling the shots is mentally unbalanced. What the doubting Thomases do not realize, is this is a big puzzle and is hard to recognize, and can be incorrectly viewed. The biggest problem is, it can be put together more than one way, totally changing its appearance and outcome. The doubting Thomas may say how is it you think you have the correct pieces? My answer is, I shoot a lot of archery, in archery you shoot for the bullseye, not the less important areas outside the bullseye. You have to stay focused on what are the core issues, not the side issues/collateral issues, where valuable time is lost. I conduct my research in this way. Two, I rely on God Almighty to keep me pointed in the right direction. Three, I always tell you not to take my word without checking the subject out for yourself. Most people, if plagued with a recurring headache, take a pain reliever, and the headache appears to go away. When in fact all you have done is deal with a symptom, that caused the headache.  You have not dealt with the cause. Many patriots today are dealing with the symptoms, like taxes, driving vs. traveling and the zipcode, etc. etc. All are important issues and have their place, but they are not the root cause of our problem. Until the cause of the affliction is researched, exposed and then removed, nothing will change.

The lawful de jure united States government which was created by the 1787 Constitution/Treaty, between the States, was made null and void by the fraudulent Congress, that passed the Fourteenth Amendment. This is a bold and broad statement, but I will prove it.

"When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guarantees of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"Considered, therefore, as transactions under the Constitution, the ordinance of secession, adopted by the convention and ratified by a majority of the citizens of Texas, and all the acts of her legislature intended to give effect to that ordinance, were absolutely null. They were utterly without operation in law. The obligations of the State, as a member of the Union, and of every citizen of the State, as a citizen of the United States, remained perfect and unimpaired. It certainly follows that the State did not cease to be a State, nor her citizens to be citizens of the Union. If this were otherwise, the State must have become foreign, and her citizens foreigners. The war must have ceased to be a war for the suppression of rebellion, and must have become a war for conquest of subjugation." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

The Southern States could not lawfully cede from the Union without the other States being in agreement. In the last sentence you will notice the war was either a rebellion or, the States were made foreign and conquest and military rule took place during the Civil War. This is very important, because of what took place next, and what took place after the Civil War and March 9, 1933. March 2, 1867, President Johnson declared the rebellion to be over and the Southern States to be once again part of the Union, before the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment were passed. So the States were not foreign, they did not have to be readmitted, they picked up in Congress where they left off, with the same State governments they had before the rebellion.  If the Southern States had ceded from the Union, without sanction by all the States, their Legislative Acts would have been null and void. In other words if a State or the federal government violates their corporate Charter, it makes any subsequent law void, unenforceable, other than by force of arms.

The following information should upset you greatly and at the same time amaze you, that Americans are totally unaware of this information. How is it in the freest country in the world, and a nation that prides itself on our history, could you have 200 plus million people ignorant of the truth, and that care so little about the destruction of our country? The information I am sharing with you is purposely not taught in the public schools. Why? It will become clear to you that, if the government taught this in the public schools, it would cause the rebirth of American patriotism. Americans would demand our former overthrown Republican form of government; and that the Laws of God Almighty be adhered to. We were promised in the Constitution a Republican form of government, and Benjamin Franklin when asked, said: you have been given a Republican form of government if you can keep it,(paraphrase). By the laziness and greed of the American people over the years our lawful government was stolen, but not without our help.

The Civil War was fought to free the slaves and reunite the Union, or so we have been told by selected history, taught by and through the government. The slaves just changed masters, as I have said before in other research papers, and the white people enfranchised, incorporated, and sold themselves into slavery.  Whites along with blacks were made legal fictions so they could be owned and taxed by the King. However, the only way this could be done is by destroying the Constitution, but they had to do it in a way that no one would recognize its destruction, or care thanks to the offered benefits. Now the Proof.

December 8, 1863 President Lincoln declared by proclamation, amnesty and reconstruction for the southerners so they could be readmitted into the Union. Footnote #7 This action along with what Lincoln was doing with the money is why Lincoln had to be killed. The South could not be allowed back into the Union without their enfranchisement. Compare the readmittance oath in President Lincoln's proclamation of 1863, to the following oath requirement required by Congress, under the Reconstruction Acts, Footnotes #3,4,5, and 6.

Editor's note: See the 6th edition for the reason why Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

"An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States, passed March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, shall cause a registration to be made of the male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, resident in each county or parish in the State or States included in his district, which registration shall include only those persons who are qualified to vote for delegates by the act aforesaid, and who shall have taken and subscribed the following oath or affirmation:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in the presence of Almighty God, that I am a citizen of the State of _____; that I have resided in said State for _____ months next preceding this day, and now reside in the county of _____, or the parish of _____, in said State, (as the case may be;) that I am twenty-one years old; that I have not been disfranchised for participation in any rebellion or civil war against the United States, nor for felony committed against the laws of any State or of the United States; that I have never been a member of any State legislature, nor held any executive or judicial office in any State and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; that I have never taken an oath as a member of Congress of the United States, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; that I will faithfully support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, encourage others so to do, so help me God;" which oath or affirmation may be administered by any registering officer." Reconstruction Act of March 23, 1867, supplement to Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867.

You will note that in the above oath Congress creates legal residence for anyone taking the oath and that this is done by registering to vote, and made a requirement in order to vote.  The same legal disability still takes place today when you register to vote. Today you still have voting districts in every county in the America.

You will also notice that, the oath makes you declare that you were not disenfranchised, by taking part in the Civil War.  Which means that, before the Civil War Americans were franchised citizens, incorporated. I covered this in part 1; by the States adoption of the Constitution, those that lived in the States became legal residents, incorporated/enfranchised, instead of Sui Juris freemen. Which was granted to them by the Declaration of Independence, and in North Carolina, for North Carolinians this was reaffirmed by the 1776 North Carolina Constitution, see British Colony part 2.

Also, you will see in the following oaths where the language came from, for the creation of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, this language was also used in the 14th Amendment oath you just read. Wherein it declares that, elected officials, judges, legislators and police etc., cannot give aid and comfort to the enemy. The enemy is anyone unincorporated, because the King cannot legally tax you, without using the force of admiralty. The enemy is also anyone that refuses to swear the oath to the de facto government for the above reasons.

The following is the oath given to those that wanted to serve in the United States government.

An act to prescribe an oath of office. July 2, 1862

"Be it enacted, That hereafter every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government of the United States either in the civil, military, or naval departments of the public service, excepting the President of the United States, shall, before entering upon the duties of such office, and before being entitled to any of the salary or other emoluments thereof, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I, A B, do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have never sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, under any authority or pretended authority, in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power, or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto; and I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear  true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter; so help me God;" which said oath, so taken and signed, shall be preserved among the files of the Court, House of Congress, or Department to which the said office may appertain. And any person who shall falsely take the said oath shall be guilty of perjury, and on conviction, in addition to the penalties now prescribed for that offense, shall be deprived of his office, and rendered incapable forever after, of holding any office or place under the United States."

When the war was over President Johnson declared the States readmitted to the Union and hostilities to be over.

Furthermore; on April 2, 1866, President Andrew Johnson issued a "Proclamation" that:

"The insurrection which heretofore existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end, and is henceforth to be so regarded."

Presidential Proclamation No. 153,
General Records of the United States,
G.S.A. National Archives and Records Service.

On August 20, 1866 (14 Stat. 814); the President proclaimed that the insurrection in the State of Texas had been completely ended and his "Proclamation"continued:

"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, tranquility, and civil authority now exist, in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."

Again the power behind the United States government would not stand for this, so Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, Footnotes #3,4,5, and 6. President Johnson vetoed the Acts because they were unconstitutional. Below are some excerpts from his veto message.

"It is plain that the authority here given to the military officer amounts to absolute despotism. But to make it still more unendurable, the bill provides that it may be delegated to as many subordinates as he chooses to appoint, for it declares that he shall 'punish or cause to be punished.' Such a power has not been wielded by any Monarch in England for more than five hundred years. In all that time no people who speak the English language have borne such servitude. It reduces the whole population of the ten States, all persons, of every color, sex, and condition, and every stranger within their limits, to the most abject and degrading slavery. No master ever had a control so absolute over the slaves as this bill gives to the military officers over both white and colored persons...."

"I come now to a question which is, if possible, still more important. Have we the power to establish and carry into execution a measure like this? I answer, 'Certainly not', if we derive our authority from the Constitution and if we are bound by the limitations which is imposes."....

"...The Constitution also forbids the arrest of the citizen without judicial warrant, founded on probable cause. This bill authorizes an arrest without warrant, at pleasure of a military commander. The Constitution declares that 'no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment of a grand jury.' This bill holds every person not a soldier answerable for all crimes and all charges without any presentment. The Constitution declares that 'no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.' This bill sets aside all process of law, and makes the citizen answerable in his person and property to the will of one man, and as to his life to the will of two. Finally, the Constitution declares that 'the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it'; whereas this bill declares martial law (which of itself suspends this great writ) in time of peace, and authorizes the military to make the arrest, and gives to the prisoner only one privilege, and that is trial 'without unnecessary delay.' He has no hope of release from custody, except the hope, such as it is, of release by acquittal before a military commission."

"The United States are bound to guarantee to each State a republican form of government. Can it be pretended that this obligation is not palpably broken if we carry out a measure like this, which wipes away every vestige of republican government in ten States and puts the life, property, and honor of all people in each of them under domination of a single person clothed with unlimited authority?"

"....,here is a bill of attainder against 9,000,000 people at once. It is based upon an accusation so vague as to be scarcely intelligible and found to be true upon no credible evidence. Not one of the 9,000,000 was heard in his own defense.  The representatives of the doomed parties were excluded from all participation in the trial. The conviction is to be followed by the most ignominious punishment ever inflicted on large masses of men. It disfranchises them by hundreds of thousands and degrades them all, even those who are admitted to be guiltless, from the rank of freeman to the condition of slaves." Veto Message of President Johnson, March 2, 1867, Footnote #8

President Johnson did not realize the King ruled and that in1845 Congress declared admiralty law to have come on land, nor did he realize the relevance of the Insular Cases. I cover these in "A Country Defeated In Victory" part 1 and in Footnote 11.  Once the judiciary decided to look the other way, the De jure Constitution's days were numbered.

"As a result of these decisions, enforcement of the Reconstruction Act against the Southern States, helpless to resist military rule without aid of the judiciary, went forward unhampered. Puppet governments were founded in these various States under military auspices. Through these means the adoption of new state constitutions, conforming to the requirements of Congress, was accomplished. Likewise, one by one, these puppet state governments ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, which their more independent predecessors had rejected. Finally, in July 1868, the ratifications of this amendment by the puppet governments of seven of the ten Southern States, including Louisiana, gave more than the required ratification by three-fourths of the States, and resulted in a Joint Resolution adopted by Congress and a Proclamation by the Secretary of State, both declaring the Amendment ratified and in force." Tulane Law Review, The Dubious Origin Of The Fourteenth Amendment. page 36

To regress just a moment, after the war, after the States rejoined the Union, the representatives of the South took their seats in Congress. Later the Thirteenth Amendment was passed in Congress by the Northern States and the Southern States. By the 1787 Constitution they were considered equal contracting partners of the Union. The powers controlling the government had to replace their republican form of government that had existed in the Southern States since they adopted the 1787 Constitution.

"Despite the fact that the southern States had been functioning peacefully for two years and had been counted to secure ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which provided for the military occupation of 10 of the 11 southern States. It excluded Tennessee from military occupation and one must suspect it was because Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment on July 7, 1866.

The Act further disfranchised practically all white voters and provided that no Senator or Congressman from the occupied States could be seated in Congress until a new Constitution was adopted by each State which would be approved by Congress. The Act further provided that each of the10 States was required to ratify the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment must become a part of the Constitution of the United States before the military occupancy would cease and the States be allowed to have seats in Congress." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

The way they chose to do it was pass the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Northern States that put the amendment up in Congress figured the Southern States would ratify. Wrong, the amendment fell short of passing the House and the Senate. The action taken next by the Northern States will go down in history as the most unlawful act ever taken by any government in the world. Since the amendment would not pass lawfully, the Northern States decided to rip the 1787 Constitution up and take over the government. How did they do this? They told the Southern States that refused to vote for the amendment they no longer were members of Congress, denying lawful States suffrage in the Union. In order to get the amendment through Congress the Northern Senators also removed a seated Senator from New Jersey to give them two-thirds in the Senate, and counted 30 abstention votes in the House as yes votes to pass the Fourteenth Amendment in the House. See Footnote #12

Observing how 'a renegade group of men from the Northern States', MY NOTE in quotes, actual text in brackets (Congress) had taken the Constitution into its own hands and was proceeding in willful disregard of the Constitution, on the 15th of January,1868- Ohio, and then on March 24, 1868- New Jersey, voted to withdraw their prior ratifications and to reject.

The following, is an excerpt from Joint Resolution No.1 of the State of New Jersey of March 24, 1868, when they rescinded their prior ratification and rejected:

"It being necessary, by the Constitution, that every amendment to the same, should be proposed by two thirds of both Houses of Congress, the authors of said proposition, for the purpose of securing the assent of the requisite majority, determined to, and did, exclude from the said two Houses eighty representatives from eleven States of the Union, upon the pretence that there were no such States in the Union; but, finding that two-thirds of the remainder of said Houses could not be brought to assent to the said proposition, they deliberately formed and carried out the design of mutilating the integrity of the United States Senate, and without any pretext or justification, other than the possession of power, without the right and in palpable violation of the Constitution, ejected a member of their own body, representing this State, and thus practically denied to New Jersey its equal suffrage in the Senate and thereby nominally secured the vote of two-thirds of the said Houses."

"The object of dismembering the highest representative assembly in the Nation, and humiliating a State of the Union, faithful at all times to all of its obligations, and the object of said amendment were one- to place new and unheard of powers in the hands of a faction, that it might absorb to itself all executive, judicial and legislative power, necessary to secure to itself immunity for the unconstitutional acts it had already committed, and those it has since inflicted on a too patient people."

"The subsequent usurpation of these once national assemblies, in passing pretended laws for the establishment, in ten States, of martial law, which is nothing but the will of the military commander, and therefore inconsistent with the very nature of all law, for the purpose reducing to slavery men of their own race to those States, or compelling them, contrary to their own convictions, to exercise the elective franchise in obedience to dictation of a fraction in those assemblies; the attempt to commit to one man arbitrary and uncontrolled power, which they have found necessary to exercise to force the people of those States into compliance with their will; the authority given to the Secretary of War to use the name of the President, to countermand its President's order, and to certify military orders to be by the direction of the President' when they are notoriously known to be contrary to the President's direction, thus keeping up the forms of the Constitution to which the people are accustomed, but practically deposing the President from his office of Commander-in-Chief, and suppressing one of the great departments of the Government, that of the executive; the attempt to withdraw from the supreme judicial tribunal of the Nation the jurisdiction to examine and decide upon the conformity of their pretended laws to the Constitution, which was the Chief function of that August tribunal, as organized by the fathers of the republic: all are but amplified explanations of the power they hope to acquire by the adoption of the said amendment."

"To conceal from the people the immense alteration of the fundamental law they intended to accomplish by the said amendment, they gilded the same with propositions of justice..."

"It imposes new prohibitions upon the power of the State to pass laws, and interdicts the execution of such part of the common law as the national judiciary may esteem inconsistent with the vague provisions of the said amendment; made vague for the purpose of facilitating encroachment upon the lives, liberties and property of the people."

"It enlarges the judicial power of the United States so as to bring every law passed by the State, and every principle of the common law relating to life, liberty, or property, within the jurisdiction of the Federal tribunals, and charges those tribunals with duties, to the due performance of which they, from their nature and organization, and their distance from the people, are unequal."

"It makes a new apportionment of representatives in the National courts, for no other reason than thereby to secure to a faction a sufficient number of votes of a servile and ignorant race to outweigh the intelligent voices of their own."

"This Legislature, feeling conscious of the support of the largest majority of the people that has ever been given _expression to the public will, declare that the said proposed amendment being designed to confer, or to compel the States to confer, the sovereign right of elective franchise upon a race which has never given the slightest evidence, at any time, or in any quarter of the globe, of its capacity of self-government, and erect an impracticable standard of suffrage, which will render the right valueless to any portion of the people was intended to overthrow the system of self-government under which the people of the United States have for eighty years enjoyed their liberties, and is unfit, from its origin, its object and its matter, to be incorporated with the fundamental law of a free people." (The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the threat that it poses to our democratic government, Pinckney G. McElwee, South Carolina Law Quarterly 1959)

Did the political outrage of all history stop there? No! In order to ratify the amendment in the States, Congress declared war on the Southern States by passing the Reconstruction Acts.  Declaring the Southern States had unlawful State governments. They placed the States under martial law, creating military districts which still exist today. Is not the Fourteenth Amendment still in existence today? Nothing has changed. They replaced the lawful State governments with puppet governments, so the Fourteenth Amendment would be ratified by the required 3/4 of the States and would not readmit any State until ratification of the amendment was complete. The illusion is since you vote for your officials, "we can't be under military occupation." The privilege to vote would end if your State tried to remove the Fourteenth Amendment.

Editor's note: See the 11th edition for the reality on suffrage.

Back to President Johnson's veto, the unlawful Congress then overrode his veto. Now picture this, you have a lawful President who vetoed the unconstitutional Reconstruction Acts, passed by a de facto Congress. Then the unlawful Congress overrides his veto since they have a Republican majority in the Congress after denying the representation to the Democratic Southern States. This Congress under the 1787 Constitution had no lawful authority to conduct business under the 1787 Charter much less destroy the office of the President. What do you call this? It was a political take over, a coup d'etat.

The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress to the States for adoption, through the enactment by Congress of Public Resolution No. 48, adopted by the Senate on June 8, 1866 and by the House of Representatives on June 13, 1866. That Congress deliberately submitted this amendment proposal to the then existing legislatures of the several States is shown by the initial paragraph of the resolution." Tulane Law Review, The Dubious Origin Of The Fourteenth Amendment. page 28

1. Texas rejected the 14th Amendment on October 27, 1866
(House Journal 1866, pp. 578-584 - Senate Journal 1866, p.
471.).

2. Georgia rejected the 14th Amendment on November 9, 1866
(House Journal 1866, p 68 - Senate Journal 1866, p. 8.).

3. Florida rejected the 14th Amendment on December 6, 1866
(House Journal 1866, p 76 - Senate Journal 1866, p. 8.).

4. Alabama rejected the 14th Amendment on December 7, 1866
(House Journal 1866. p. 210-213 - Senate Journal 1866, p.
183.).

5. North Carolina rejected the 14th Amendment on December 14,
1866 (House Journal 1866 - 1867. p. 183 - Senate Journal
1866-67, p. 138.).

6. Arkansas rejected the 14th Amendment on December 17, 1866
(House Journal 1866, pp. 288-291 - Senate Journal 1866, p.
262.).

7. South Carolina rejected the 14th Amendment on December 20,
1866 (House Journal 1866, p. 284 - Senate Journal 1866, p.
230.).

8. Kentucky rejected the 14th Amendment on January 8, 1867
(House Journal 1867, p. 60 - Senate Journal 1867, p. 62.).

9. Virginia rejected the 14th Amendment on January 9, 1867
(House Journal 1866-67, p. 108 - Senate Journal 1866-67, p.
101.).

10. Louisiana rejected the 14th Amendment on February 9, 1867
("Joint Resolution" as recorded on page 9 of the "Acts of
the General Assembly," Second Session, January 28, 1867)
(McPherson, "Reconstruction," p. 194; "Annual Encyclopedia,"
p. 452.).

11. Delaware rejected the 14th Amendment on February 7, 1867
(House Journal 1867, p. 223 - Senate Journal 1867, p. 808.).

12. Maryland rejected the 14th Amendment on March 23, 1867
(House Journal 1867, p. 1141 - Senate Journal 1867, p.
808.).

13. Mississippi rejected the 14th Amendment on January 31, 1867
(McPherson, "Reconstruction," p. 194.).

14. Ohio rejected the 14th Amendment on January 15, 1868
(House Journal 1868, pp. 44-50 - Senate Journal 1868, pp.
33-38.).

15. New Jersey rejected the 14th Amendment on March 24, 1868
("Minutes of the Assembly" 1868, p. 743 - Senate Journal
1868, p. 356.).

16. California rejected the 14th Amendment on March 3rd, 1868
("Journal of the Assembly" 1867-8, p. 601).

17. Oregon rejected the 14th Amendment by the Senate on October
6, 1868 and by the House on October 15, 1868 proclaiming the
Legislature that ratified the Amendment to have been a
"defacto" Legislature (U.S. House of Representatives, 40th
Congress, 3rd session, Mis. Doc. No 12).

Did the military occupation ever come to an end? No! Did the military presence leave the streets? Yes. Technically do you have to have a military presence visible in the streets, for military occupation and martial law to exist? No! Can the military/Commander-in-Chief/Congress, transfer this power to the civil authorities? Yes. Read the following cases, and Lincoln's General order 100, Footnote #9

"But there is another description of government, called also by publicists a government de facto, but which might, perhaps, be more aptly denominated a government of paramount force. Its distinguishing characteristics are (1) that its existence is maintained by active military power within the territories, and against the rightful authority of an established and lawful government; and (2) that while it exists it must necessarily be [229 U.S. 416, 429] obeyed in civil matters by private citizens who, by acts of obedience rendered in submission to such force, do not become responsible, as wrongdoers, for those acts, though not warranted by the laws of the rightful government. Actual governments of this sort are established over districts differing greatly in extent and conditions. They are usually administered directly by military authority, but they may be administered, also, by civil authority, supported more or less directly by military force." Thornington v. Smith, 8 Wall. 1, 9, 19 L. ed. 361, 363. Macleod v. U.S, 229 U.S. 416 1913

"While it is held to be the right of a conqueror to levy contributions upon the enemy in their seaports, towns, or provinces which may be in his military possession by conquest, and to apply the proceeds to defray the expenses of the war, this right is to be exercised within such limitations that it may not savor of confiscation. As the result of military occupation, the taxes and duties payable by the inhabitants to the former government become payable to the military occupant, unless he sees fit to substitute for them other rates or modes of contributions to the expenses of the government. The moneys so collected are to be used for the purpose of paying the expenses of government under the military occupation, such as the salaries of the judges and the police, and for the payment of the expenses of the army." Macleod v. U.S, 229 U.S. 416 1913

To also prove that military occupation still exists, ask yourself this. Is the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified under duress, military occupation; and written and passed by a de facto Congress still in existence? Yes! If a State would today remove the Fourteenth Amendment and the statutory laws this amendment created from their State laws, do you think the federal government would send in the military again? Of course it would.  So did the military occupation end? I hope by now you know the answer to that.

Have you never wondered why the government sends your tax dollars all over the world via the IMF and the World Bank etc. etc., with Americans paying the bill, without ever putting this up for a vote? Read the following quote.

"In New Orleans v. New York Mail S. S. Co. 20 Wall. 387, 393, 22 L. ed. 354, it was said, with respect to the powers of the military government over the city of New Orleans after its conquest, that it had 'the same power and rights in territory held by conquest as if the territory had belonged to a foreign country and had been subjugated in a foreign war. In such cases the conquering power has the right to displace the pre-existing authority, and to assume to such extent as it may deem proper the exercise by itself of all the powers and functions of government. It may appoint all the necessary officers and clothe them with designated powers, larger or smaller, according to its pleasure. It may prescribe the revenues to be paid, and apply them to its own use or otherwise. It may do anything necessary to strengthen itself and weaken the enemy. There is no limit to the powers that may be exerted in such cases, save those which are found in the laws and usages of war." Dooley v. U.S., 182 U.S. 222 1901

To drive home the relevance of British Colony part 1 & 2 and what I just said above about taxes, read and understand the below quotes from the Declaration of Rights, September 5, 1774. Maybe it will sink in, we are taxed by Britain and we have not only asked for it but, demanded the benefits supplied by the King, past and present. GO FIGURE????

"Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, can not properly be represented in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, WE CHEERFULLY CONSENT TO THE OPERATION OF SUCH ACTS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, as are BONA FIDE, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the PURPOSE OF SECURING THE COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF THE WHOLE EMPIRE TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY, and the COMMERCIAL BENEFITS OF ITS RESPECTIVE MEMBERS; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or EXTERNAL, for raising a revenue on the SUBJECTS IN AMERICA, without their consent." Declaration of Rights, from September 5, 1774 (The forefathers wanted the commercial benefits without paying the taxes that go hand in hand, it does not work that way Patriots.)

"Resolved, 7. That these, His Majesty's colonies, are likewise entitled to all the IMMUNITIES AND PRIVILEGES GRANTED and confirmed to them by ROYAL CHARTERS, or secured by their several codes of provincial laws." Declaration of Rights, from September 5, 1774

As further proof, are not all States divided into military Districts? At first glance you may not think so. However, look at your District Courts, in your State. They are the enforcement arm of the Admiralty law/Kings law and legislation passed on a daily basis. As I said before the voting Districts are also left over from the Reconstruction Acts. In every court room a military flag is flown, a war flag not the Title 4, flag of peace. Are you not required to obtain a license from the de facto government for every aspect of commerce, and the use of their military script/fiat money? Americans are taxed and controlled in the following ways, to name a few:

1. Social Security number - license to work.
2. Drivers license - permission to conduct commerce and travel on the military roads.
3. Occupational license - permission to perform a God given right.
4. State and local privilege license - license to work in the State, county or city.
5. Marriage license - permission for a right granted by God Almighty.
6. Hunting and Fishing license - government taxing property of God Almighty, etc.etc.etc.

Every license or permit is a use tax and is financial slavery; you are controlled in every aspect of your life. All licenses came about after the Fourteenth Amendment and the military occupation, which we are now under. The reason all this has taken place in America is, to colonize the world for Britain. The United States has been the enforcement arm/cannon fodder for Britain since the Civil War.

"The decisions wherein grounds were found for avoiding a ruling on the constitutionality of the Reconstruction Act leave the impression that our highest tribunal failed in these cases to measure up to the standard of the judiciary in a constitutional democracy. If the Reconstruction Act was unconstitutional, the people oppressed by it were entitled to protection by the judiciary against such unconstitutional oppression." Tulane Law Review, The Dubious Origin Of The Fourteenth Amendment. page 34

Editor's note: The United States was not formed as a constitutional democracy; it was formed as a republic.

"The adversary or the skeptic might assert that, after a lapse of more than eighty years, it is too late to question the constitutionality or validity of the coerced ratifications of the Fourteenth Amendment even on substantial and serious grounds.  The ready answer is that there is no statute of limitations that will cure a gross violation of the amendment procedure laid down by Article V of the Constitution." Tulane Law Review, The Dubious Origin Of The Fourteenth Amendment. page 43

If you want to read more about the military occupation and the War Powers Act, read Footnote #11. This issue concerning the Constitution has to be understood by the Patriots, before you can help others see the illusion. We Patriots need to be able to tell others how we arrived in this condition. But, this will never happen as long as we defend a dead treaty, and expect a lawful remedy from a de facto government.

Is it any wonder why Americans look at us like we're nuts.  We defy a de facto government and take its benefits. We curse its judges and praise a de facto Constitution that, denies the judges the ability to give remedy to the enemy. We praise the legal document that gave Congress the power to declare us as enemies and curse the Congress for their action. Wake up Patriots! How do you expect Americans to listen to the truth, when we are so easily made to look like fools by the government propaganda machine, and we make it easy for them. We tell the American people the sky is falling, but never give them a remedy, other than keeping the same damn document that enslaved us. We do not tell the American people that there was life before the Civil War Occupation and the Fourteenth Amendment unlawful Constitution, so fear of the unknown will keep them from wanting to learn. The only remedy I see, except for God Almighty's Judgment, is to expose the fraud. See Footnote 13.

Until you accept the truth about the Constitution you will not be able to understand the information in British Colony part 1 & 2. I will end this research paper in this way. Someone asked me, "are you not afraid to be killed by the government?" I told them what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendnego said:

"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King, But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Daniel 3:17-18

Mark Twain: "You see, my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing; it is the thing to watch over and care for and be loyal to; institutions extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags--that is a loyalty of unreason; it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy; was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it. I was from Connecticut, whose constitution declared "That all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit, and that they have at all times an undeniable and indefensible right to alter their form of government in such a manner as they think expedient." Under that gospel, the citizen who thinks that the Commonwealth's political clothes are worn out and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor. That he may be the only one who thinks he sees this decay does not excuse him; it is his duty to agitate, anyway, and it is the duty of others to vote him down if they do not see the matter as he does."

FOOTNOTES
Footnote #1

The North Carolina Legislature protested [by "Resolution" of December 6, 1866] as follows:

"The Federal Constitution declare, in substance, that Congress shall consist of a House of Representatives, composed of members apportioned among the respective States in the ratio of their population, and of a Senate, composed of two members from each State. And IN THE ARTICLE WHICH CONCERNS AMENDMENTS, IT IS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED THAT `NO STATE, WITHOUT ITS CONSENT, SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF ITS EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN THE SENATE.' THE CONTEMPLATED AMENDMENT WAS NOT PROPOSED TO THE STATES BY A CONGRESS THUS CONSTITUTED. At the time of its adoption, the eleven seceding States were deprived of representation both in the Senate and House, although they all, except the State of Texas, had Senators and Representatives duly elected and claiming their privileges under the Constitution. In consequence of this, these States had no voice on the important question of proposing the Amendment. HAD THEY BEEN ALLOWED TO GIVE THEIR VOTES, THE PROPOSITION WOULD DOUBTLESS HAVE FAILED TO COMMAND THE REQUIRED TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY...."

"If the votes of these States are necessary to a valid ratification of the Amendment, they were equally necessary on the question of proposing it to the States; for it would be difficult, in the opinion of the Committee, to show by what process in logic, men of intelligence would arrive at a different conclusion." North Carolina Senate Journal, 1866-67, pp. 92 and 93.

"By spurious, non-representative governments; seven of the southern States, (which had theretofore rejected the proposed Amendment under the duress of military occupation and of being denied representation in Congress), did attempt to ratify the proposed Fourteenth Amendment. The Secretary of State, (of July 20, 1868), issued his proclamation wherein he stated that it was his duty under the law to cause Amendments to be published and certified as a part of the Constitution when he received official notice that they had been adopted pursuant to the Constitution. Thereafter his certificate contained the following language:"

"And whereas neither the Act just quoted from, nor any other law, expressly or by conclusive implication, authorizes the Secretary of State to determine and decide doubtful questions as to the authenticity of the organization of State legislatures, or as to the power of any State legislature to recall a previous act or resolution of ratification of any amendment proposed to the Constitution;"

"And whereas it appears from official documents on file in this Department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of [naming 23, including New Jersey, Ohio, and Oregon];"

"And whereas it further appears from documents on file in this Department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has also been ratified by newly constituted and newly established bodies avowing themselves to be and acting as the legislatures, respectively, of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama;"

"And whereas it further appears from official documents on file in this Department that the legislatures of two of the States first above enumerated, to wit, Ohio and New Jersey, have since passed resolutions respectively withdrawing the consent of each of said States to the aforesaid amendment; and whereas it is deemed a matter of doubt and uncertainty whether such resolutions are not irregular, invalid, and, therefore, ineffectual for withdrawing the consent of the said two States, or of either of them, to the aforesaid amendment;"

"And whereas the whole number of States in the United States is thirty-seven, to wit: [naming them];"

"And whereas the twenty-three States first hereinbefore named, whose legislatures have ratified the said proposed amendment, and the six States next thereafter named, as having ratified the said proposed amendment by newly constituted and established legislative bodies, together constitute three fourths of the whole number of States in the United States;"

"Now, therefore, be it known that I, WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuant of the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and eighteen, hereinbefore cited, do hereby certify that if the resolutions of the legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey ratifying the aforesaid amendment are to be deemed as remaining of full force and effect, notwithstanding the subsequent resolutions of the legislatures of those States, which purport to withdraw the consent of said States from such ratification, then the aforesaid amendment had been ratified in the manner hereinbefore mentioned, and so has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States." *** (15 Stat. 707 (1868))" Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"Congress was not satisfied with the proclamation as issued and on the next day passed a Concurrent Resolution wherein it was resolved:"

"That said Fourteenth Article is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State."

"Resolution set forth in proclamation of Secretary of State, (15 Stat. 709 [1868])." See also U.S.C.G., Amends. 1 to 5, Constitution, p. 11

"Thereupon; William H. Seward, the Secretary of State (after setting forth the Concurrent Resolution of both Houses of Congress) then certified that the Amendment:"

"Has become valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States." (15 Stat. 708 [1868])" Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"The Constitution of the United States is silent as to who should decide whether a proposed Amendment has or has not been passed according to formal provisions of Article V of the  Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States is the ultimate authority on the meaning of the Constitution and has never hesitated in a proper case to declare an Act of Congress  unconstitutional except when the Act purported to amend the Constitution." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"In the case of Laser v. Garnet 258 U.S. 130, 42 SECT. 217, 66 LED. 505, the question was before the Supreme Court as to whether or not the Nineteenth Amendment had been ratified pursuant to the Constitution. In the last paragraph of the decision the Supreme Court said:"

"As the legislatures of Tennessee and of West Virginia had power to adopt the resolutions of ratification, official notice to the Secretary, duly authenticated, that they had done so, was conclusive upon him, and, being certified to by his proclamation, is conclusive upon the courts." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"The duty of the Secretary of State was ministerial, to wit, to count and determine when three fourths of the States had ratified the proposed Amendment. He could not determine that a State, once having rejected a proposed Amendment, could thereafter approve it; nor could he determine that a State, once having ratified that proposal, could thereafter reject it. The Supreme Court, and not Congress, should determine whether the Amendment process be final or would not be final, whether the first vote was for ratification or rejection." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"In order to have 27 States ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, it was necessary to count those States which had first rejected and then under the duress of military occupation had ratified, and then also to count those States which initially ratified but subsequently rejected the proposal." Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d 266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

"To leave such dishonest counting to a fractional part of Congress is dangerous in the extreme. What is to prevent any political party having control of both Houses of Congress from refusing to seat the opposition and then passing a Joint Resolution to the effect that the Constitution is amended and that it is the duty of the Administrator of the General Services Administration to proclaim the adoption?"

"Would the Supreme Court of the United States still say the problem was political and refuse to determine whether constitutional standards had been met?" Dyett v. Turner 439 p2d266 @ 269, 20 U2d 403

Footnote #2

Tulane Law Review vol. 28 1953, The Dubious Origin Of The Fourteenth Amendment, by Walter J. Suthon, Jr.

"How remote was this Hamiltonian concept from the events of 1867 and 1888, when a "rump" Congress arrogated to itself the power to force ratification of a rejected amendment, coercing ratifications by several of the rejecting States." page 26

"This submission was by a two-thirds vote of the quorum present in each House of Congress, and in that sense it complied with Article V of the Constitution. However, the submission was by a "rump" Congress. Using the constitutional provision that "Each House shall be the judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members..." each House had excluded all persons appearing with credentials as Senators or Representatives from the ten Southern States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. This exclusion, through the exercise of an unreviewable constitutional prerogative, constituted a gross violation of the essence of two other constitutional provisions, both intended to protect the rights of the States to representation in Congress." page 28

"Had these ten Southern States not been summarily denied their constitutional rights of representation in Congress, through the ruthless use of the power of each House to pass on the election and qualifications of its members, this amendment proposal would doubtless have died a-borning. It obviously would have been impossible to secure a two-thirds vote for the submission of the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, particularly in the Senate, if the excluded members had been permitted to enter and to vote. Of course, that was one of the motives and reasons for this policy of ruthless exclusion." page 28

"Assuming the validity of the submission of this amendment by a two-thirds vote of this "rump" Congress, there is no gainsaying the obvious proposition that whatever "contemplation" or "understanding" this "rump" Congress may have had, as to the intent, or the scope, or the effect, or the consequences of the amendment being submitted, was necessarily a "rump" contemplation or understanding. The ten Southern States, whose Senators and Representatives were all excluded from the deliberations of the "rump" Congress, could have had no possible part in the development or formation of any "contemplation" or "understanding" of what the consequences and effects of the proposed amendment were to be." page 29

"This created a situation which made impossible the ratification of the Amendment unless some of these rejections were reversed. With thirty-seven States in all, ten rejections were sufficient to prevent the adoption of the amendment proposal. The thirteen rejections, by the ten Southern States and three border States, were more than sufficient to block ratification even if all other States finally ratified." page 30

"This is the only action ever taken on the Fourteenth Amendment by a Louisiana Legislature exercising free and unfettered and uncoerced judgment and discretion as between ratification or rejection of the amendment proposal. The subsequent purported ratification of this Amendment in Louisiana was by a legislature of a puppet government, created by the radical majority of Congress to do the bidding of its master, and compelled to ratify this Amendment by the Federal Statute which had brought this puppet government into existence for this specific purpose." page 30

"It is most interesting to read the proceedings of the Louisiana House of Representatives on February 6, 1867, whereby that body adopted the Joint Resolution ordaining the refusal of Louisiana to ratify the proposed Fourteenth Amendment--the Joint Resolution which became Act 4 of 1867. This Journal shows, by the roll call, that one hundred members voted out of a total House membership of one hundred and ten--and that the unanimous vote was one hundred against ratification and not in favor of it.  This was the last opportunity for a free and uncoerced _expression of views on this amendment proposal by duly elected representatives of the people of Louisiana." page 31

"The Act dealt with these Southern States, referred to as "rebel States" in its various provisions. It opened with a recital that "no legal State government" existed in these States.  It placed these States under military rule. Louisiana and Texas were grouped together as the Fifth Military District, and placed under the domination of an army officer appointed by the President. All civilian authorities were placed under the dominant authority of the military government." page 31

"The most extreme and amazing feature of the Act was the requirement that each excluded State must ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, in order to again enjoy the status and rights of a State, including representation in Congress. Section 3 of the Act sets fourth this compulsive coercion thus imposed upon the Southern States." page 32

"Senator Doolittle of Wisconsin, a Northerner and a Conservative Republican. During the floor debate on the bill, he said:

"My friend has said what has been said all around me, what is said every day: the people of the South have rejected the constitutional amendment, and therefore we will march upon them and force them to adopt it at the point of the bayonet, and establish military power over them until they do adopt it." page 32

"President Johnson vetoed the Reconstruction Act in an able message, stressing its harsh injustices and its many aspects of obvious unconstitutionality. He justifiably denounced it as "a bill of attainder against nine million people at once." page 33

"Notwithstanding this able message, the Act was promptly passed over his veto by the required two-thirds majority in each House. Military rule took over in the ten Southern States to initiate the process of conditioning a subjugated people to an ultimate acceptance of the Fourteenth Amendment." page 33

"Whatever justification for other portions of the Reconstruction Act may or may not be found in this constitutional provision, there could clearly be no sort of a relationship between a guarantee to a State of "a republican form of government" and an abrogation of the basic and constitutional right of a State, in its legislative discretion, to make its own choice between ratification or rejection of a constitutional amendment proposal submitted to the state legislatures by the Congress of the United States. To deny to a State the exercise of this free choice between ratification and rejection, and to put the harshest sort of coercive pressure upon a State to compel ratification, was clearly a gross infraction--not and effectuation--of the constitutional guarantee of "a republican form of government." page 37

Madison said in Federalist No. 43:

"....the authority extends no further than to a guaranty of a republican form government, which supposes a preexisting government of the form which is to be guaranteed. As long, therefore, as the existing republican forms are continued by the States, they are guaranteed by the federal Constitution.  Whenever the States may choose to substitute other republican forms, they have a right to do so, and to claim the federal guaranty for the latter. The only restriction imposed on them is, that they shall not exchange republican for anti-republican Constitutions; a restriction which, it is presumed, will hardly be considered as a grievance." page 38

"The enactment of the legislature of the puppet government of Louisiana which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment is embodied in Act 2 of 1868. The legislative journals of that session reflect the presence and dominance of the military, all as provided for and contemplated by the Reconstruction Act." page 39

"The House Journal shows that on June 29, 1868, Colonel Batchelder opened the session by calling the roll and reading an extract form the order of General Grant. The Senate Journal for the same date shows the reading of instructions from General Grant to the Commanding Officer of the Fifth Military District emphasizing the supremacy of the power of the military over the provisional civilian government. It was under these auspices that the coerced ratifications of the Fourteenth Amendment in Louisiana was accomplished." page 40

"Also worth of note in this connection is the holding in 1895 that the levying of an income tax by the Federal Government, without apportioning the tax among the States as a direct tax, violated the taxing-power provisions of the Constitution of the United States--although, thirty years prior to this judicial vindication of what the majority of the Court deemed to be fundamental and true Constitutional provisions, the Federal Government had levied and collected income taxes for several years on a large scale, and had financed a major war of vital consequences to a very considerable extent out of revenues so obtained." page 44

Editor's note: To understand the 14th Amendment, read the article about it in the 6th edition.

Footnote #3

Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867

RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS

From Twenty Years of Congress: From Lincoln to Garfield.

With a review of the events which led to the political revolution of 1860, by James G. Blaine. Vol. II, pp. 681-682.

An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states.

"Whereas no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exist in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, 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, 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. "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. "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. "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 government 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 under the provisions of this act shall be carried into effect without the approval of the President."

Sec. 5."That when the people of any one of 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 a targe."

"After Ten Amend 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 be admitted therefrom on their taking the oaths 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."That until the people of said rebel 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."

Footnote #4

Reconstruction Act of March 11, 1868

AMENDATORY RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF MARCH 11, 1868

From Twenty Years of Congress: From Lincoln to Garfield.

With a review of the events which led to the political revolution of 1860, by James G. Blaine. Vol. II, p. 687.

"An Act to amend the act passed March 23, 1867, entitled An Act supplementary to 'An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states,' passed March 2, 1867, and to facilitate their restoration."

"Be it enacted, That hereafter any election authorized by the act passed March 23, 1867, entitled "An Act supplementary to 'An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states,' passed March 2, 1867, and to facilitate their restoration," shall be decided by a majority of the votes actually cast; and at the election in which the question of the adoption or rejection of any constitution is submitted, any person duly registered in the State may vote in the election district where he offers to vote when he has resided therein for ten days next preceding such election, upon presentation of his certificate of registration, his affidavit, or other satisfactory evidence, under such regulations as the district commanders may prescribe."

Sec. 2. "That the constitutional convention of any of the States mentioned in the acts to which this is amendatory may provide that at the time of voting upon the ratification of the constitution, the registered voters may vote also for members of the House of Representatives of the United States, and for all elective officers provided for by the said Constitution; and the same election officers, who shall make the returns of the votes cast on the ratification or rejection of the Constitution, shall enumerate and certify the votes cast for members of Congress."

Footnote #5

Reconstruction Act of March 23, 1867

SUPPLEMENTARY RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF FORTIETH CONGRESS.

From Twenty Years of Congress: From Lincoln to Garfield.

With a review of the events which led to the political revolution of 1860, by James G. Blaine. Vol. II, pp. 682-685.

An Act supplementary to an act entitled

An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states, passed March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and to facilitate restoration.

"Be it enacted, That before the first day of September, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, the commanding general in each district defined by an act entitled."

"An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States, passed March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, shall cause a registration to be made of the male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, resident in each county or parish in the State or States included in his district, which registration shall include only those persons who are qualified to vote for delegates by the act aforesaid, and who shall have taken and subscribed the following oath or affirmation:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in the presence of Almighty God, that I am a citizen of the State of _____; that I have resided in said State for _____ months next preceding this day, and now reside in the county of _____, or the parish of _____, in said State, (as the case may be;) that I am twenty-one years old; that I have not been disfranchised for participation in any rebellion or civil war against the United States, nor for felony committed against the laws of any State or of the United States; that I have never been a member of any State legislature, nor held any executive or judicial office in any State and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; that I have never taken an oath as a member of Congress of the United States, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; that I will faithfully support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, encourage others so to do, so help me God;" which oath or affirmation may be administered by any registering officer."

Sec. 2. "That after the completion of the registration hereby provided for in any State, at such time and places therein as the commanding general shall appoint and direct, of which at least thirty days' public notice shall be given, an election shall be held of delegates to a convention for the purpose of establishing a Constitution and civil government for such state loyal to the Union, said convention in each State, except Virginia, to consist of the same number of members as the most numerous branch of the State legislature of such State in the year eighteen hundred and sixty, to be apportioned among the several districts, counties, or parishes of such State by the commanding general, giving to each representation in the ratio of voters registered as aforesaid, as nearly as may be. The convention in Virginia shall consist of the same number of members as represented the territory now constituting Virginia in the most numerous branch of the legislature of said State in the year eighteen hundred and sixty, to be apportioned as aforesaid."

Sec. 3. "That at said election the registered voters of each State shall vote for or against a convention to form a Constitution therefor under this act. Those voting in favor of such a convention shall have written or printed on the ballots by which they vote for delegates, as aforesaid, the words "For a convention," and those voting against such a convention shall have written or printed on such ballots the words "Against a convention." The person appointed to superintend said election, and to make return of the votes given thereat, as herein provided, shall count and make return of the votes given for and against a convention; and the commanding general to whom the same shall have been returned shall ascertain and declare the total vote in each State for and against a convention. If a majority of the votes given on that question shall be for a convention, then such convention shall be held as hereinafter provided; but if a majority of said votes shall be against a convention, then no such convention shall be held under this act:

"Provided, That such convention shall not be held unless a majority of all such registered voters shall have voted on the question of holding such convention."

Sec. 4. "That the commanding general of each district shall appoint as many boards of registration as may be necessary, consisting of three loyal officers or persons, to make and complete the registration, superintend the election, and make return to him of the votes, lists of voters, and of the persons  elected as delegates by a plurality of the votes cast at said election; and upon receiving said returns he shall open the same, ascertain the persons elected as delegates according to the returns of the officers who conducted said election, and make proclamation thereof; and if a majority of the votes given  on that question shall be for a convention, the commanding general, within sixty days from the date of election, shall notify the delegates to assemble in convention, at a time and place to be mentioned in the notification, and said convention, when organized, shall proceed to frame a Constitution and civil government according to the provisions of this act and the act to which is it supplementary; and when the same shall have been so framed, said Constitution shall be submitted by the convention for ratification to the persons registered under the provisions of this act at an election to be conducted by the officers or persons appointed or to be appointed by the commanding general, as hereinbefore provided, and to be held after the expiration of thirty days from the date of notice thereof, to be given by said convention; and the returns thereof shall be made to the commanding general of the district."

Sec. 5. "That if, according to said returns, the Constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the votes of the registered electors qualified as herein specified, cast at said election, (at least one half of all the registered voters voting upon the question of such ratification,) the president of the convention shall transmit a copy of the same, duly certified, to the President of the United States, who shall forthwith transmit the same to Congress, if then in session, and if not in session, then immediately upon its next assembling; and if it shall, moreover, appear to Congress that the election was one at which all the registered and qualified electors in the State had an opportunity to vote freely and without restraint, fear, or the influence of fraud, and if the Congress shall be satisfied that such Constitution meets the approval of a majority of all the qualified electors in the State, and if the said Constitution shall be declared by Congress to be in conformity with the provisions of the act to which this is supplementary, and the other provisions of said act shall have been complied with, and the said Constitution shall be approved by Congress, the State shall be declared entitled to representation, and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom as therein provided."

Sec. 6. "That all elections in the States mentioned in the said "Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," shall, during the operation of said act, be by ballot; and all officers making the said registration of voters and conducting said elections shall, before entering upon the  discharge of their duties, take and subscribe the oath prescribed by the oath 1862 act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to prescribe an oath of office:"

"Provided, That if any person shall knowingly and falsely take and subscribe any oath in this act prescribed, such person so offending and being thereof duly convicted, shall be subject to the pains, penalties, and disabilities which by law are provided for the punishment of the crime of wilful and corrupt perjury."

Sec. 7. "That all expenses incurred by the several commanding generals, or by virtue of any orders issued, or appointments made, by them, under or by virtue of this act, shall be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated."

Sec. 8. "That the convention for each State shall prescribe the fees, salary, and compensation to be paid to all delegates and other officers and agents herein authorized or necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act not herein otherwise provided for, and shall provide for the levy and collection of  such taxes on the property in such State as may be necessary to pay the same."

Sec. 9. "That the word article, in the sixth section of the act to which this is supplementary, shall be construed to mean section."

Footnote #6

Reconstruction Act of July 19, 1867

SUPPLEMENTARY RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF JULY 19, 1867.

From Twenty Years of Congress: From Lincoln to Garfield.

With a review of the events which led to the political revolution of 1860, by James G. Blaine. Vol. II, pp. 685-687.

"An Act supplementary to an act entitled An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states, passed on the second day of March, 1867, and the act supplementary  thereto, passed on the 23d day of March, 1867."

"Be it enacted, That it is hereby declared to have been the true intent and meaning of the act of the second day of March, 1867, entitled "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," and of the act supplementary thereto, passed on the 23d day of March, 1867, that the governments then existing in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas, were not legal State governments; and that thereafter said governments, if continued, were to be continued subject in all respects to the military commanders of the respective districts, and to the paramount authority of Congress."

Sec. 2."That the commander of any district named in said act shall have power, subject to the disapproval of the General of the army of the United States, and to have effect till disapproved, whenever in the opinion of such commander the proper administration of said act shall require it, to suspend or remove from office, or from the performance of official duties and the exercise of official powers, any officer or person holding or exercising, or professing to hold or exercise, any civil or military office or duty in such district under any power, election, appointment, or authority derived from, or granted by, or claimed under any so-called State or the government thereof, or any municipal or other division thereof; and upon such suspension or removal such commander, subject to the disapproval of the General as aforesaid, shall have power to provide from time to time for the performance of the said duties of such officer or person so suspended or removed, by the detail of some competent officer or soldier of the army, or by the appointment of some other person to perform the same, and to fill vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise."

Sec. 3. "That the General of the army of the United States shall be invested with all the powers of suspension, removal, appointment, and detail granted in the preceding section to district commanders."

Sec. 4. "That the acts of the officers of the army already done in removing in said districts persons exercising the functions of civil officers, and appointing others in their stead, are hereby confirmed: Provided, That any person heretofore or hereafter appointed by any district commander to exercise the functions of any civil office, may be removed either by the military officer in command of the district, or by the General of the army. And it shall be the duty of such commander to remove from office, as aforesaid, all persons who are disloyal to the Government of the United States, or who use their official influence in any manner to hinder, delay, prevent, or obstruct the due and proper administration of this act and the acts to which it is supplementary."

Sec. 5."That the boards of registration provided for in the act entitled "An act supplementary to an act entitled 'An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States,' passed March 2, 1867, and to facilitate restoration," passed March 23, 1867, shall have power, and it shall be their duty, before allowing the registration of any person, to ascertain, upon such facts or information as they can obtain, whether such person is entitled to be registered under said act, and the oath required by said act shall not be conclusive on such question, and no person shall be registered unless such board shall decide that he is entitled thereto; and such board shall also have power to examine, under oath, (to be administered by any member of such board,) any one touching the qualification of any person claiming registration; but in every case of refusal by the board to register an applicant, and in every case of striking his name from the list as hereinafter provided, the board shall make a note or memorandum, which shall be returned with the registration list to the commanding general of the district, setting forth the grounds of such refusal or such striking from the list:

"Provided, That no person shall be disqualified as member of any board of registration by reason of race or color."

Sec. 6. "That the true intent and meaning of the oath prescribed in said supplementary act is, (among other things,) that no person who has been a member of the Legislature of any State, or who has held any executive or judicial office in any State, whether he has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States or not, and whether he was holding such office at the commencement of the rebellion, or had held it before, and who has afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof, is entitled to be registered or to vote; and the words "executive or judicial office in any State" in said oath mentioned shall be construed to include all civil offices created by law for the administration of any general law of a State, or for the administration of justice."

Sec. 7. "That the time for completing the original registration provided for in said act may, in the discretion of the commander of any district, be extended to the 1st day of October, 1867; and the boards of registration shall have power, and it shall be their duty, commencing fourteen days prior to any election under said act, and upon reasonable public notice of the time and place thereof, to revise, for a period of five days, the registration lists, and, upon being satisfied that any person not entitled thereto has been registered, to strike the name of such person from the list, and such person shall not be allowed to vote. And such board shall also, during the same period, add to such registry the names of all persons who at that time possess the qualifications required by said act who have not been already registered; and no person shall, at any time, be entitled to be registered or to vote, by reason of any executive pardon or amnesty, for any act or thing which, without such pardon or amnesty, would disqualify him from registration or voting."

Sec. 8. "That section four of said last-named act shall be construed to authorize the commanding general named therein, whenever he shall deem it needful, to remove any member of a board of registration and to appoint another in his stead, and to fill any vacancy in such board."

Sec. 9. "That all members of said boards of registration, and all persons hereafter elected or appointed to office in said military districts, under any so-called State or municipal authority, or by detail or appointment of the district commanders, shall be required to take and to subscribe the oath of office prescribed by law for officers of the United States. I am not sure that this is the oath intended here."

Sec. 10. "That no district commander or member of the board of registration, or any of the officers or appointees acting under them, shall be bound in his action by any opinion of any civil officer of the United States."

Sec. 11. "That all the provisions of this act and of the acts to which this is supplementary shall be construed liberally, to the end that all the intents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out."

Footnote #7

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A PROCLAMATION.

"Whereas, in and by the Constitution of the United States, it is provided that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;" and "Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States; and Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare;" and

"Whereas the congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon accords with well-established judicial exposition of the pardoning power;" and

"Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the United States has issued several proclamations, with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves; and Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective States; therefore,"

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:"

"I, --------, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified or held void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God."

"The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called confederate government; all who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall have been, military or naval officers of said so-called confederate government above the rank of colonel in the army, or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, and afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons or white persons, in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service, as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity." "And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that "The United States shall guaranty to every State in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or the executive, (when the legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence."

"And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national Executive. And it is suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the Constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government."

"To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, so far as 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 exclusively 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. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State

Footnote #8

Veto message by President Johnson, March 2, 1867

"I have examined the bill to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States' with care and anxiety which its transcendent importance is calculated to awaken. I am unable to give it my assent for reasons so grave that I hope a statement of them may have some influence on the minds of the patriotic and enlightened men with whom the decision must ultimately rest."

"The bill places all the people of the ten states therein named under the absolute domination of military rules; and the preamble undertakes to give the reason upon which the measure is based and the ground upon which it is justified. It declares that there exists in those States no legal governments and no adequate protection for life or property, and asserts the necessity of enforcing peace and good order within their limits.  This is not true as a matter of fact."

"It is not denied that the States in question have each of them an actual government, with all the powers - executive, judicial, and legislative - which properly belong to a free state. They are organized like the other States of the Union, and, like them, they make, administer, and execute the laws which concern their domestic affairs. An existing de facto government, exercising such functions as these, is itself the law of the state upon all matters within its jurisdiction. To pronounce the supreme law making power of an established state illegal is to say that law itself is unlawful."

"The provisions which these governments have made for the preservation of order, the suppression of crime, and the redress of private injuries are in substance and principle the same as those which prevailing the Northern States and in other civilized countries. They certainly have not succeeded in preventing the commission of all crime, nor has this been accomplished any where in the world....But that people are maintaining local governments for themselves which habitually defeat the object of all government and render their own lives and property insecure is in itself utterly improbable, and the averment of the bill to that effect is not supported by any evidence which has come to my knowledge...."

"The bill, however, would seem to show upon its face that the establishment of peace and good order is not its real object.  The fifth section declares that the preceding sections shall cease to operate in any state where certain events shall have happened. These events are, first, the selection of delegates to a State convention by an election at which Negroes shall be allowed to vote; second, the formation of a State Constitution by the convention so chosen; third, the insertion into the State constitution of a provision which will secure the right of voting at all elections to Negroes and to such white men as may not be disfranchised for rebellion or felony; fourth, the submission of the Constitution for ratification by their vote; fifth, the submission of the State Constitution to Congress for examination and approval, and the actual approval of it by that body; sixth, the adoption of a certain amendment to the Federal Constitution by a vote of Legislature elected under the new Constitution; seventh, the adoption of said amendment by a sufficient number of other States to make it a part of the Constitution of the United States. All these conditions must be fulfilled before the people of any of these States can be relieved from the bondage of military domination; but when they are fulfilled, then immediately the pains and penalties of the bill are to cease, no matter whether there be peace and order or not, and without any reference to the security of life or property. The excuse given for the bill in the preamble is it establishes is plainly to be used, not for any purpose of order or for the prevention of crime, but solely as a means of coercing the people into the adoption of principles and measures to which it is known that they are opposed, and upon which they have an undeniable right to exercise their own judgment."

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