BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. A PROCLAMATION. WHEREAS, BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, THE EXECUTIVE POWER IS VESTED IN A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHO IS BOUND BY SOLEMN OATH FAITHFULLY TO EXECUTE THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT, AND TO THE BEST OF HIS ABILITY TO PRESERVE, PROTECT, AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.[caption title and beginning of text].

Uncommon broadside printing of a Reconstruction-era proclamation issued by President Andrew Johnson. This proclamation was prompted by General Daniel Sickles' "General Order No. 10," which Sickles hoped would control the carpetbagging then rampant in the Carolinas, but which instead resulted in the obstruction of the states' civil courts. Following the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the South was placed under military rule and divided into five districts. North Carolina and South Carolina became the "Second Military District," under the command of Sickles. Although military control over the civil courts in the South had been for the most part withdrawn by President Johnson in April of 1866, General Sickles nonetheless countermanded the President's orders regarding the civil courts by issuing General Order No. 10 on April 11, 1867, which stated that "judgments or decrees for the payment of money, or causes of action arising between the 19th of December, 1860, and the 15th of May, 1865, shall not be enforced by execution against the property or person of the defendant. Proceedings in such causes of action now pending shall be stayed; and no suit or process shall be hereafter instituted or commenced for any such causes of action." As biographer Edgcumb Pinchon notes, Sickles issued the order in the hope of controlling carpetbaggers from the North, who bought up delinquent claims and used them to dispossess already desperate families of their remaining possessions. General Order No. 10 effectively usurped the power of the state civil courts, as well as the Federal courts, and gave it to the military, causing great confusion in the civil court systems, with representatives of the court, including law enforcement, unsure of whose directive to follow. The local courts ended up following Sickles as he was locally present and directly in charge of their district. The usurpation of the civil courts by the military as a result of Sickles' order came to a head in June 1867, when Justice Salmon P. Chase, performing his duty as judge in the North Carolina Federal circuit court in Wilmington, ruled against a number of defendants in the matter of debt resolution, and issued writs of execution to be served on the properties in question. The deputy marshal charged to serve the writs was forbidden to do so by the military commandant in Wilmington where the defendants lived and their property was located. News of Sickles' obstruction reached Commanding General Ulysses S. Grant and President Johnson soon after, prompting the present proclamation by the President warning "all persons against obstructing or hindering in any manner whatsoever the faithful execution of the Constitution and the laws." Johnson goes on to solemnly enjoin and command all officers of the Government, civil and military, to render due submission and obedience to said laws, and to the judgments and decrees of the courts of the United States and to give all the aid in their power necessary to the proper enforcement and execution of such laws, decrees, judgments and processes." In early August, Sickles received a telegraphed reprimand from Grant (who had just become Acting Secretary of War) stating in unequivocal terms that "Authority Conferred on district Commanders does not extend in any respect over the acts of the courts of the United States," and he was relieved of his command on the 26th of August for issuing and enforcing General Order No. 10. Johnson's proclamation was transmitted by both the Treasury Department on September 9, 1867 and by the Post Office on September 10, 1867 (as in the present copy). OCLC notes one copy of this Post Office issue, at Duke University, and two copies of the Treasury Department issue, at the New-York Historical Society Library and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. OCLC also locates two copies with no transmitting department noted, at the American Antiquarian Society and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An impor. …