three fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a. part of the said constitution, namely: “ ARTICLE XHI. “ SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a. uuishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. “ Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate législati0u." And whereas it agpears fiom 0Hicia.l documents on filo in this department that Amendment to the amendment to the Constitution of the United States roposed, as aforesaid, theooustitution has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of Illinois, Rhode Island, ¤¤*¤dl>Y Michigan, M3I%l8·I1d, New York, West Vigglnia, Maine, Kpxisas, Massachusetts, ;:$';;y"'°v°° Pens lvgnia, irginia, Ohio, Missouri, evade, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesctu,¥Visconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia; in all twenty-seven state ; And whereas the whole number of states in the United States is thirty-six; and whereas the before specially-named states, whose legislatures have ratified the said proposed amendment, constitute three fourths of the whole number of states in the United States: Now, therefore, be it known, that I, WVILLIAM H. SmwAm>, Secretary of ·°:'¤°¤dm°¤* State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of tho second section of "hd' the act of congress, approved the twentieth of Agril, eighteen hundred and eigteeu, entitled “An act to provide for the pu licatiou of the laws of the 1818f‘El!· SON 2- United States am! for other pu 0ses," do hereby oertify that the amendment V°m' P' 439 aforesaid hue become valid, to allpiubcuts and purposes, as a. part of the Constitution of the United States. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the De artment of State to be affixed. gone at the ci? of Washington, this eighteenth day of December, in the [L. S.] year of our ord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninetieth. WHJLIAM H. SEWARD. Secretary of State.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS.
No. 1.
In pursuance of the twenty-sixth section of the act of congress entitled ‘‘An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes,’’ approved on the third day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, I, Abraham Lincoln, President and commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, do hereby order and command, that all soldiers, enlisted or drafted into the service of the United States, now absent from their regiments without leave, shall forthwith return to their respective regiments.
And I do hereby declare and proclaim, that all soldiers now absent from their respective regiments without leave, who shall, on or before the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, report themselves at any rendezvous designated by the General Orders of the War Department number fifty-eight, hereto annexed, may be restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the forfeiture of pay and allowances during their absence; and all who do not return within the time above specified shall be arrested as deserters, and punished as the law provides.
