the war of the revolution, and prior to the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, on the same footing, as to rate of pension, from and after the passage of said act, as those who have been pensioned under acts passed since said fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixtyone; and the widows of revolutionary soldiers and sailors now receiving a less sum shall hereafter be paid at the rate of eight dollars per month.

SEC. 14. That all officers in the military or naval service, of the rank of captain in the army or lieutenant in the navy, and of less rank, who have lost a leg or arm in such service and in the line of duty, or in consequence of wounds received or disease contracted therein, shall be entitled to receive an artificial limb on the same terms as privates in the army are now entitled to receive the same.

No. 125.-Extending the laws of the United States over Alaska. The whole purchase is formed into one collection district, to be called "Alaska;" a port of entry to be declared at or near Sitka, with a collector at $2,500 salary and fees, the whole not to exceed $4,000 a year.

SEC. 4. That the President shall have power to restrict and regulate or prohibit the importation and use of fire-arms, ammunition, and distilled spirits into and within the said Territory. And all such arms, ammunition, and distilled spirits, landed or attempted to be landed or used at any port or place in said Territory, in violation of said regulations, shall be forfeited; and if the value of the same shall exceed four hundred dollars, the vessel upon which the same shall be found, or from which they shall have been landed, together with her tackle, apparel and furniture, and cargo, shall be forfeited; and any person willfully regulating such violation shall, on conviction, be fined in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months.

SEC. 6. That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to kill any otter, mink, martin, sable, or fur seal, or other fur bearing animal, within the limits of said Territory, or in the waters thereof; and any person guilty thereof shall, for each offence, on conviction, be fined in any sum not less than two hundred dollars nor more than one thousand, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both at the discretion of the court; and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, found engaged in the violation of this act, shall be forfeited: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to authorize the killing of any of such mink, martin, sable, or other fur-bearing animal except fur seals, under such regulations as he may prescribe; and it shall be the duty of the said Secretary to prevent the killing of any fur seal, and to provide for the execution of the provisions of this section until it shall be otherwise provided by law: Provided, That no special privileges shall be granted under this act.

No. 128.-Regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases, for the protection of officers and agents of the government, and for the better defence of the treasury against unlawful claims. This act is chiefly to regulate claims for seized and abandoned property. It is interesting only to those immediately affected, and to lawyers in the court of claims.

PUBLIC RESOLUTIONS. There are few of these of any considerable importance. We give the chief points of interest. No. 1. A resolution excluding from the electoral college votes of States lately in rebellion which shall not have been reorganized.-That none of the States whose inhabitants were lately in rebellion shall be entitled to representation in the electoral college for the choice of President or Vice-President of the United States, nor shall any electoral votes be received or counted from any of such States, unless at the time prescribed by law for the choice of electors the people of such States, pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf, shall have, since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, adopted a constitution of State government under which a State government shall have been organized and shall be in operation, nor unless such election of electors shall have been held under the authority of such constitution and government, and such State shall have also become entitled to representation in Congress, pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to apply to any State which was represented in Congress on the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty seven. (Vetoed and repassed.)

No. 4.-That the Secretary of the Navy be, and he is hereby, authorized to dispose of such ironclad vessels, except those of the "Dictator," "Kalamazoo," ," "Monadnock," and "Passaic classes, as in his judgment are not required by the interests of the service, at a price to be determined by appraisal, to be made by a board of not less than five naval officers, two of whom shall be engineers.

No. 5.-That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to take immediate measures for the reduction of the expenses of the army and of the war department at and in the vicinity of New York city, at as early a day as practicable, by concentrating the business of the quartermaster, commissary, clothing, ordnance, and medical bureaus, and recruiting service in said city.

No. 9.-That all moneys which have been received by any officer or employe[e] of the government, or any department thereof, from sales of captured and abandoned property in the late insurrectionary districts, under or under color of the several acts of Congress providing for the collection and sale of such property, and which have not already been actually covered into the treasury, shall immediately be paid into the treasury of the United States, together with any interest which has been received or accrued thereon. That a sum of the proceeds of such sales not exceeding seventy-five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for the payment of the necessary expenses incurred by or under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, for incidental expenses in acting under the laws respecting the collection and disposition of captured and abandoned property, and for the necessary expenses of defending, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, such suits as have been brought against him or his agents in the premises, and for prosecuting suits in the United States for the recovery of such property, and for providing for the defence of the Uni

ted States against suits for or in respect to such property in the court of claims.

No. 14.-That section eight of an act entitled "An act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on the Pacific coast," is hereby so amended as to read as follows: That each and every grant, right, and privilege herein, are so made and given to and accepted by said Northern Pacific Railroad Company upon and subject to the following conditions, namely: That the said company shall commence the work on said road within two years from and after the second day of July, eighteen hundred and sixtyeiget, and shall complete not less than one hundred miles per year after the second year thereafter, and shall construct, equip, furnish, and complete the whole road by the fourth day of July, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-seven.

No. 17. That the time fixed and limited by an act entitled “An act granting lands to aid in the construction of certain railroads in the State of Wisconsin," approved May fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, for the completion of the railroad from Tomah, in the county of Monroe, to Saint Croix river or lake, between townships twenty-five and thirty-one, be, and the same is hereby, further extended for a period of three years to the West Wisconsin Railroad Company, a corporation established by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, and which by the laws of said State, is entitled to the land grant made in the second section of said act: Provided, That if said railway company shall not have completed said railroad from Tomah to Black River Falls, on or before the expiration of one year from the passage of this resolution, this act shall be null and void.

of the States, but only to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution of the United States, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that so soon as these objects should be accomplished, the war on the part of the government should cease: And whereas the President of the United States has heretofore, in the spirit of that declaration, and with the view of securing for it ultimate and complete effect, set forth several proclamations, offering amnesty and pardon to persons who had been or were concerned in the aforesaid rebellion, which proclamations, however, were attended with prudential reservations and exceptions, then deemed necessary and proper, and which proclamations were respectively issued on the 8th day of December, 1863, on the 26th day of March, 1864, on the 29th day of May, 1865, and on the 7th day of September, 1867:

And whereas the said lamentable civil war has long since altogether ceased, with an acknowledged guarantee to all the States of the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and the government thereunder; and there no longer exists any reasonable ground to apprehend a renewal of the said civil war, or any foreign interference, or any unlawful resistance by any portion of the people of any of the States to the Constitution and laws of the United States.

And whereas it is desirable to reduce the standing army, and to bring to a speedy termination military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, abridgement of freedom of speech and of the press, and suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus, and the right of trial by jurysuch encroachments upon our free institutions in times of peace being dangerous to public lib

the citizen, contrary to the genius and spirit of our republican form of government and exhaustive of the national resources:

No. 23. That the people of the United States renew the expression of their sympathy with the suffering people of Crete, to whom they are bound by the ties of a common religion and of the gratitude due to the Greek race, of which the Cretans are a part; that they rejoice to believe that the suffering of this interesting people may be happily terminated by a policy of forbearance on the part of the Turkish Government.

PROCLAMATIONS.

THE PRESIDENT'S FIRST AMNESTY PROCLAMATION. Whereas in the month of July, A. D. 1861, in accepting the condition of civil war, which was brought about by insurrection and rebellion in several of the States which constitute the United States, the two houses of Congress did solemnly declare that the war was not waged on the part of the government in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for any purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions

And whereas it is believed that amnesty and pardon will tend to secure a complete and universal establishment and prevalence of municipal law and order, in conformity with the Constitution of the United States, and to remove all appearances or presumptions of a retaliatory or vindictive policy on the part of the government attended by unnecessary disqualifications, pains, penalties, confiscations, and disfranchisements; and, on the contrary, to promote and procure complete fraternal reconciliation among the whole people, with due submission to the Constitution and laws;

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do, by virtue of the Constitution and in the name of the people of the United States, hereby proclaim and declare, unconditionally and without reservation, to all and to every person who directly or indirectly participated in the late insurrection or rebellion, excepting such person or persons as may be under presentment or indictment in any court of the United States having competent jurisdiction upon a charge of treason or other felony, a full pardon and amnesty for the offence of treason against the United States, or of adhering to their enemies during the late civil war, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and except also as to any

CERTIFICATE OF MR. SECRETARY SEWARD RESPECTING THE RATIFICATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION, JULY 20, 1868.

William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, to all to whom these presents may come, greeting:

Whereas the Congress of the United States, on or about the sixteenth of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, passed a resolution which is in the words and figures following, to wit:

66

[See Tribune Almanac for 1867, page 447.] And whereas by the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the United States, and for other purposes, "it is made the duty of the Secretary of State forthwith to cause any amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which has been adopted according to the provisions of the said Constitution, to be published in the newspapers authorized to promulgate the laws, with his certificate specifying the States by which the same may have been adopted, and that the same has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States;

And whereas neither the act just quoted from, nor any other law, expressly or by conclusive implication, authorizes the Secretary of State to determine and decide doubtful questions as to the authenticity of the organization of State legislatures, or as to the power of any State legislature to recall a previous act or resolution of ratification of any amendment proposed to the Constitution;

And whereas it appears from official documents on file in this Department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Iowa.

And whereas it further appears from documents on file in this Department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has also been ratified by newly-constituted and newly-established bodies avowing themselves to be, and acting as, the legislatures, respectively, of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama;

And whereas it further appears from official documents on file in this Department that the legislatures of two of the States first above enumerated, to wit: Ohio and New Jersey, have since passed resolutions respectively withdrawing the consent of each of said States to the aforesaid amendment; and whereas it is deemed a matter of doubt and uncertainty whether such resolutions are not irregular, invalid, and therefore ineffectual for withdrawing the consent of the said two States, or of either of them, to the aforesaid amendment;

And whereas the whole number of States in the United States is thirty-seven, to wit: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con

necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska;

herein before named, whose legislatures have ratiAnd whereas the twenty-three States first fied the said proposed amendment, and the six States next thereafter named, as having ratified the said proposed amendment by newly-constituted and established legislative bodies, together

constitute three-fourths of the whole number of

States in the United States;

H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United Now, therefore, be it known, that I, William States, by virtue and in pursuance of the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and eighteen, hereinbefore cited, do hereby certify that if New Jersey ratifying the aforesaid amendment the resolutions of the legislatures of Ohio and

are to be deemed as remaining in full force and tions of the legislatures of those States which effect, notwithstanding the subsequent resolupurport to withdraw the consent of said States ment has been ratified in the manner hereinbefrom such ratification, then the aforesaid amendfore mentioned, and so has become valid, to all intents 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 Department of

State to be affixed.

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS ON THE SAME SUBJECT, JULY 21, 1868.

Whereas the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana, being three-fourths and more of the several States of the Union, have ratified the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, duly proposed by two-thirds of each House of the Thirty-ninth Congress; therefore

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That said fourteenth article is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State.

July 21.-Passed the SENATE without a count. Same day.-Passed the HOUSE-the resolution yeas 126, nays 32; the preamble-yeas 127, nays 85.

Georgia has ratified it since, by a majority of ten in the Senate, and twenty-four in the House.