Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

The state officers elected under the plan of President Johnson had continued in the peaceful administration of their duties. Therefore, on the day of the inauguration of the newly-elected governor (Holden), the existing governor (Worth) made a spirited protest, saying:

I do not recognize the validity of the late election, under which you and those cooperating with you claim to be invested with the civil government of the State. You have no evidence of your election, save the certificate of a majorgeneral of the United States Army. I regard all of you as, in effect, appointees of the military power of the United States, and not as deriving your powers from the consent of those you claim to govern. Knowing, however, that you are backed by military force here, which I could not resist if I would, I do not deem it necessary to offer a futile opposition, but vacate the office without the ceremony of actual eviction, offering no further opposition than this, my protest. I would submit to actual expulsion in order to bring before the Supreme Court of the United States the question as to the constitutionality of the legislation under which you claim to be the rightful Governor of the State, if the past action of that tribunal furnished any hope of a speedy trial. I surrender the office to you under what I deem military duress, without stopping, as the occasion would well justify, to comment on the singular coincidence that the present State government is surrendered, as without legality, to him whose own official sanction, but three years ago, declared it valid.

I am, very respectfully,

Jonathan worth, Governor of North Carolina.

The so-called legislature assembled on the appointed day, and the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was at once ratified, and on July 11, 1868, the President announced by proclamation that ‘North Carolina had complied with the conditions prescribed by Congress for her restoration to an equal place in the Union of states.’

In South Carolina proceedings were commenced on June 20, 1865, when President Johnson issued a proclamation similar to the one in the case of Virginia, and appointed Benjamin F. Perry as provisional governor of the state. He continued all persons in office on taking the amnesty oath, and all laws in force prior to the secession of the state were maintained except those conflicting with the proclamation; delegates to a so-called state convention were elected on the first Monday of September, and the convention assembled on the 13th to amend the state constitution. The ordinance of secession was repealed and slavery abolished. Blacks were made witnesses in all cases where the rights or