e may be established, domestic tranquillity insured, and
loyal citizens protected in all their rights of life, liberty, and
property, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States and
Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do hereby
appoint Andrew J. Hamilton, of Texas, provisional governor of the State
of Texas, whose duty it shall be, at the earliest practicable period, to
prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for
convening a convention composed of delegates to be chosen by that
portion of the people of said State who are loyal to the United States,
and no others, for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution
thereof, and with authority to exercise within the limits of said State
all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the
State of Texas to restore said State to its constitutional relations to
the Federal Government and to present such a republican form of State
government as will entitle the State to the guaranty of the United
States therefor and its people to protection by the United States
against invasion, insurrection, and domestic violence: _Provided_,
That in any election that may be hereafter held for choosing delegates
to any State convention as aforesaid no person shall be qualified as an
elector or shall be eligible as a member of such convention unless he
shall have previously taken and subscribed the oath of amnesty as set
forth in the President's proclamation of May 29, A.D. 1865, and is a
voter qualified as prescribed by the constitution and laws of the State
of Texas in force immediately before the 1st day of February, A.D. 1861,
the date of the so-called ordinance of secession; and the said
convention, when convened, or the legislature that may be thereafter
assembled, will prescribe the qualification of electors and the
eligibility of persons to hold office under the constitution and laws of
the State--a power the people of the several States composing the
Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the origin of the
Government to the present time.

And I do hereby direct--

First. That the military commander of the department and all officers
and persons in the military and naval service aid and assist the said
provisional governor in carrying into effect this proclamation; and they
are enjoined to abstain from in any way hindering, impeding, or
discouraging the loyal people from the organization of a St