d States have, in their
aforesaid resolution, so solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently
recommended.

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
seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the
eighty-ninth.

A. LINCOLN.

By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES,

WHOSE GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF
GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION,

JULY 8, 1864.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

A Proclamation.

Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to
certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a
republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; and

Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United States
for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of
said session, and was not signed by him; and

Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for restoring
the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the Union,
which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that subject, and
which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the people for their
consideration:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in December
last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for restoration)
unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be inflexibly committed to
any single plan of restoration, and while I am also unprepared to declare
that the free State constitutions and governments already adopted and
installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside and held for
naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who have
set up the same as to further effort, or to declare a constitutional
competency in Congress to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same
time sincerely hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment
abolishing slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am
fully satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as
one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to adopt
it, and that I am and