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Proclamation 184—Submitting the Constitution of the State of Mississippi to the Voters of the State

July 13, 1869


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

In pursuance of the provisions of the act of Congress approved April 10, 1869, I hereby designate Tuesday, the 30th day of November, 1869, as the time for submitting the constitution adopted on the 15th day of May, 1868, by the convention which met in Jackson, Miss., to the voters of said State registered at the date of such submission, viz, November 30, 1869.

And I submit to a separate vote that part of section 3 of Article VII of said constitution which is in the following words:

That I am not disfranchised in any of the provisions of the acts known as the reconstruction acts of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congress, and that I admit the political and civil equality of all men. So help me God: Provided, If Congress shall at any time remove the disabilities of any person disfranchised in said reconstruction acts of the said Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congress (and the legislature of this State shall concur therein), then so much of this oath, and so much only, as refers to the said reconstruction acts shall not be required of such person so pardoned to entitle him to be registered.

And I further submit to a separate vote section 5 of the same article of said constitution, which is in the following words:

No person shall be eligible to any office of profit or trust, civil or military, in this State who, as a member of the legislature, voted for the call of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession, or who, as a delegate to any convention, voted for or signed any ordinance of secession, or who gave voluntary aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility to the United States, or who accepted or attempted to exercise the functions of any office, civil or military, under any authority or pretended government, authority, power, or constitution within the United States hostile or inimical thereto, except all persons who aided reconstruction by voting for this convention or who have continuously advocated the assembling of this convention and shall continuously and in good faith advocate the acts of the same; but the legislature may remove such disability: Provided , That nothing in this section, except voting for or signing the ordinance of secession, shall be so construed as to exclude from office the private soldier of the late so-called Confederate States army.

And I further submit to a separate vote section 5 of Article XII of the said constitution, which is in the following words:

The credit of the State shall not be pledged or loaned in aid of any person, association, or corporation; nor shall the State hereafter become a stockholder in any corporation or association.

And I further submit to a separate vote part of the oath of office prescribed in section 26 of Article XII of the said constitution, which is in the following words:

That I have never, as a member of any convention, voted for or signed any ordinance of secession; that I have never, as a member of any State legislature, voted for the call of any convention that passed any such ordinance.

The above oath shall also be taken by all the city and county officers before entering upon their duties, and by all other State officials not included in the above provision. I direct the vote to be taken upon each of the above-cited provisions alone, and upon the other portions of the said constitution in the following manner, viz:

Each voter favoring the ratification of the constitution (excluding the provisions above quoted), as adopted by the convention of May 15, 1868, shall express his judgment by voting for the constitution.

Each voter favoring the rejection of the constitution (excluding the provisions above quoted) shall express his judgment by voting against the constitution.

Each voter will be allowed to cast a separate ballot for or against either or both of the provisions above quoted.

It is understood that sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 of Article XIII, under the head of "Ordinance," are considered as forming no part of the said constitution.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 13th day of July, A. D. 1869, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fourth.

U. S. GRANT.

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State.

Ulysses S. Grant, Proclamation 184—Submitting the Constitution of the State of Mississippi to the Voters of the State Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/204433

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