“Whereas the 4th section of the 4th article of the Constitution of the United States declares that the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence; and whereas the President of the United States is by the Constitution made Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy as well as chief civil executive officer of the United States, and is bound by solemn oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and whereas the rebellion which has been waged by a portion of the people of the United States against the properly constituted authorities of the Government thereof in the most violent and revolting form, but whose organized and armed forces have been almost entirely overcome, has in its revolutionary progress, deprived the people of the State of South Carolina of all civil government; and whereas it becomes necessary and proper to carry out and enforce the obligations of the United States to the people of South Carolina in securing them in the enjoyment of a republican form of government. Now therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed upon me by the Constitution of the United States, and for the purpose of enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a State Government, whereby justice 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 Benjamin F. Perry of South Carolina, Provisional Governor of the State of South Carolina, whose duty it shall be at the earliest practicable time to prescribe such 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 South Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional relation to the Federal Government and to present such a republican form of State Government as will entitle the State to the guarantee therefor and its people to the protection of the United States against invasion, insurrection and domestic violence; provided that in any election that may hereafter be 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, May 29th, 1865 and is a voter as