The Amnesty Proclamation was issued on May 29, and was in effect a renewal of the provisions of Lincoln's proclamation of December 8, 1863, relating to amnesty; but it increased the number of classes excepted from the benefits of the proclamation, from seven to fourteen,[50] and provided that special application for pardon might be made by any of the excepted classes, to the President, who would exercise liberal clemency. Inasmuch as the excepted classes included all those whom less than three weeks previously he had been denouncing as traitors to be punished and impoverished, such great liberality, displayed in so short a time, was somewhat surprising.[51] The proclamation further empowered the Secretary of State to make all needful regulations for the administration and recording of the amnesty oath; and in accordance with this provision the Secretary of State ordered that the oath might be taken before any commissioned officer of the United States, or before any civil or military officer of a loyal State or Territory, who was legally qualified to administer oaths. On the same day that he issued the Amnesty Proclamation, President Johnson appointed William W. Holden Provisional Governor of North Carolina.[52] This was his first radical step in the carrying out of his policy of reconstruction. The order restoring the authority of the United States in Virginia was not of so great importance, as the State had nominally been under the Pierpiont government since near the beginning of the war, and the mere restoration of certain United States officers in that State did not involve to any extent the vital questions of the hour.[53] But with the appointment of Mr. Holden, and the instructions accompanying the order of appointment, President Johnson unfolded, in its entirety, his theory.