202 RESTORATION OF CERTAIN STATES [June 25 An Act to admit the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, to Representation in Congress. WHEREAS the people of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have, in pursuance of the provisions of an act entitled “ An act for the more efficient government of the rebel States,” passed March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and the acts supplementary thereto, framed constitutions of State government which are republican, and have adopted said constitutions by large majorities of the votes cast at the elections held for the ratification or rejection of the same: Therefore, Be it enacted. . ., That each of the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, shall be entitled and admitted to representation in Congress as a State of the Union when the legislature of such State shall have duly ratified the amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen, upon the following fundamental conditions: That the constitutions of neither of said States shall ever be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote in said State, who are entitled to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized, except as a punishment for such crimes as are now felonies at common law, whereof they shall have been duly convicted under laws equally applicable to all the inhabitants of said State: Provided, That any alteration of said constitution may be made with regard to the time and place of residence of voters; and the State of Georgia shall only be entitled and admitted to representation upon this further fundamental condition: that the first and third subdivisions of section seventeen of the fifth article of the constitution of said State, except the proviso to the first subdivision, shall be null and void, and that the general assembly of said State by solemn nublic act shall declare the assent of the State to the foregoing. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if the day fixed for the first meeting of the legislature of either of said States by the constitution or ordinance thereof shall have passed or have so nearly arrived before the passage of this act that there shall not be time for the legislature to assemble at the period fixed, such legislature shall convene at the end of twenty days from the time this act takes effect, unless the governor elect shall sooner convene the same. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the first section of this act shall take effect as to each State, except Georgia, when such State shall, by its legislature, duly ratify article fourteen of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and as to the State of Georgia when it shall in addition give the assent of said State to the fundamental condition hereinbefore imposed upon the same; and thereupon the officers of each State duly elected and qualified under the constitution thereof shall be inaugurated without delay; but no person prohibited from holding office under the United States, or under any State, by section three of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, known as article fourteen, shall be deemed eligible to any office in either of said States, unless relieved from disability as provided in said amendment; and it is hereby made the duty of the President within ten days after receiving official information of the ratification of said amendment by the legislature of either of said States to issue a proclamation announcing that fact. No. 70. Eight-Hour Law June 25, 1868 A BILL providing that eight hours should constitute a day's work for laborers, workmen, and mechanics in government employ passed the House March 28, 1867, but was not acted on in the Senate. The same bill was again introduced, January 6, 1868, by Banks of Massachusetts, and passed the same day. In the Senate the bill lay on the table until June 3, when it was taken up, and on the 24th passed, the vote being 26 to 11, 19 not voting. An act of August 1, 1892, virtually reënacted the act of 1868, with the further provision that the eight hours' work should be embraced in one calendar day, and with penalties for violation of the act. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XV, 77. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. On the operation of the law see Senate Exec. Doc. 72, 42d Cong., 2d Sess.; Senate Reports 417 and 418, 45th Cong., 2d Sess.; House Report 520, 46th Cong., 2d Sess. See also Senate Report 948 and House Report 1267, 52d Cong., 1st Sess.; House Report 957, 55th Cong., 2d Sess. An Act constituting eight Hours a Day's Work for all Laborers, Workmen, and Mechanics employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United States. Be it enacted That eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics now employed, or who may be hereafter employed, by or on behalf of the government of the United States; and that all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed. APPROVED, June 25, 1868. MARCH 5, 1868, the House having under consideration a resolution for the removal of the political disabilities of R. R. Butler, a representative-elect from Tennessee, the resolution, on motion of Dawes of Massachusetts, was recommitted to the Committee on Elections with instructions to report a general bill for the removal of such disabilities. The bill was reported the same day, and on the 6th passed. Subsequent amendments in the Senate and House were unimportant, and the yeas and nays were not called for. An act of February 15, 1871, allowed those who could not take the oath prescribed by the act of July 2, 1862, and who were not rendered ineligible to office by the Fourteenth Amendment, to take the oath prescribed by this act. REFERENCES. - Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XV, 85. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. An Act prescribing an Oath of Office to be taken by Persons from whom legal Disabilities shall have been removed. Be it enacted That whenever any person who has participated in the late rebellion, and from whom all legal disabilities arising therefrom have been removed by act of Congress by a vote of two thirds of each house, has been or shall be elected or appointed to any office or place of trust in or under the government of the United States, he shall, before entering upon the duties thereof, instead of the oath prescribed by the act of July two, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 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. APPROVED, July 11, 1868. No. 72. Joint Resolution excluding Electoral Votes of the Late Rebellious States July 20, 1868 A JOINT resolution "excluding from the electoral college votes of States lately in rebellion which shall not have been reorganized" was introduced in the Senate, June 2, 1868, by George F. Edmunds of Vermont, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The resolution was reported on the 29th with an amendment inserting the clause beginning "nor unless such election of electors." The phraseology of the bill rather than its substance was the chief occasion of debate. The resolution passed the Senate July 10, by a vote of 29 to 5, 23 not voting. The House added the proviso as an amendment, and passed the bill on the 11th by a vote of 112 to 21, 65 not voting. The Senate, by a vote of 19 to 15, concurred. The resolution was vetoed by Presi dent Johnson July 20, and passed over the veto the same day, in the House by a vote of 134 to 36, 40 not voting, in the Senate by a vote of 45 to 8. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XV, 257. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. A Resolution excluding from the Electoral College Votes of States lately in Rebellion, which shall not have been reorganized. Resolved. That none of the States whose inhabitants were lately in rebellion shall be entitled to representation in the electoral college for the choice of President or Vice-President of the United States, nor shall any electoral votes be received or counted from any of such States, unless at the time prescribed by law for the choice of electors the people of such States, pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf, shall have, since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, adopted a constitution of State government under which a State government shall have been organized and shall be in operation, nor unless such election of electors shall have been held under the authority of such constitution and government, and such State shall have also become entitled to representation in Congress, pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to apply to any State which was represented in Congress on the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. No. 73. Rights of American Citizens in Foreign States July 27, 1868 IN his annual message of December 3, 1867, President Johnson called attention to the conflict between the American theory of the right of expatriation and the British theory of indefeasible citizenship, and the complications arising from the arrest of naturalized citizens of the United States in foreign countries. Papers relating to arrests of American citizens in Great Britain, particularly in connection with the efforts of the British government to suppress the Fenian movement were laid before Congress. In the House the portion of the message referred to, together with numerous resolutions and |