t seldom paralleled in the history of
the world;

And whereas, because of the said insurrection, the execution of
the laws for collecting taxes, and of various other laws of the
United States, heretofore enacted by the Congress in the just
exercise of their constitutional powers, has been, for more than
two years past, and still is, obstructed and defeated throughout
the insurrectionary States;

And whereas it is the right and duty of the Congress to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
execution the said constitutional powers;

And whereas the said insurrectionary portions of the Union consist
exclusively of States wherein persons of African descent are held
in large numbers to involuntary service or labor,--the white
inhabitants thereof basing their insurrectionary acts upon the
assumption that the security and perpetuation of such involuntary
servitude require the disruption of the national unity, and the
establishment, on a portion of the domain of the United States, of
a separate and independent government;

And whereas a large portion of the said persons of African
descent, so held in servitude, contribute greatly, so long as such
involuntary services are thus exacted from them, to the aid and
comfort of the said insurrectionists, laboring for their behoof on
their fortifications, and for the supply of their commissariat,
and otherwise giving strength and support to various
insurrectionary acts;

And whereas, in an emergency so urgent as that which is now patent
to the world, it is the duty of the Congress to place at the
disposal of the Executive branch of the Government, for the common
defence, the utmost power, civil and military, of the country, and
to employ every means not forbidden by the usages of civilized
warfare, and not in violation of the Constitution, that is placed
within their reach, in order to repress and to bring to a speedy
termination the present protracted and desolating insurrection;

And whereas it appears from the above recitals, that the
existence, throughout certain of the United States, of a
labor-system which recognizes the claims of one race of men to the
involuntary services of another race (always a moral wrong) has
now shown itself to be destructive of the supremacy of the laws,
and a const