United States to individuals, corporations, and associations within the United States, except interest on the public debt, and in redemption of the national currency. And no such association shall issue post notes or any other notes to circulate as money than such as are authorized by the foregoing provisions of this act.

SEC. 26. And be it further enacted, That the bonds transferred to and deposited with the treasurer of the United States, as hereinbefore provided, by any banking association for the security of its circulating notes, shall be held exclusively for that purpose, until such notes shall be redeemed, except as provided in this act; but the comptroller of the currency shall give to any such banking association powers of attorney to receive and appropriate to its own use the interest on the bonds which it shall have so transferred to the treasurer; but such powers shall become inoperative whenever such banking association shall fail to redeem its circulating notes as aforesaid. Whenever the market or cash value of any bonds deposited with the treasurer of the United States, as aforesaid, shall be reduced below the amount of the circulation issued for the same, the comptroller of the currency is hereby authorized to demand and receive the amount of such depreciation in other United States bonds at cash value, or in money, from the association receiving said bills, to be deposited with the treasurer of the United States as long as such depreciation continues...

SEC. 31. And be it further enacted, That every association in the cities hereinafter named shall, at all times, have on hand, in lawful money of the United States, an amount equal to at least twenty-five per centum of the aggregate amount of its notes in circulation and its deposits; and every other association shall, at all times, have on hand, in lawful money of the United States, an amount equal to at least fifteen per centum of the aggregate amount of its notes in circulation, and of its deposits. And whenever the lawful money of any association in any of the cities hereinafter named shall be below the amount of twenty-five per centum of its circulation and deposits, and whenever the lawful money of any other association shall be below fifteen per centum of its circulation and deposits, such association shall not increase its liabilities by making any new loans or discounts otherwise than by discounting or purchasing bills of exchange payable at sight, nor make any dividend of its profits until the required proportion between the aggregate amount of its outstanding notes of circulation and deposits

and its lawful money of the United States shall be restored: Provided, That three fifths of said fifteen per centum may consist of balances due to an association available for the redemption of its circulating notes from associations approved by the comptroller of the currency, organized under this act, in the cities of Saint Louis, Louisville, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Albany, Leavenworth, San Francisco, and Washington City: Provided, also, That clearing-house certificates, representing specie or lawful money specially deposited for the purpose of any clearing-house association, shall be deemed to be lawful money in the possession of any association belonging to such clearing-house holding and owning such certificate, and shall be considered to be a part of the lawful money which such association is required to have under the foregoing provisions of this section: Provided, That the cities of Charleston and Richmond may be added to the list of cities in the national associations of which other associations may keep three fifths of their lawful money, whenever, in the opinion of the comptroller of the currency, the condition of the southern states will warrant it. And it shall be competent for the comptroller of the currency to notify any association, whose lawful money reserve as aforesaid shall be below the amount to be kept on hand as aforesaid, to make good such reserve; and if such association shall fail for thirty days thereafter so to make good its reserve of lawful money of the United States, the comptroller may, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, appoint at receiver to wind up the business of such association, as provided in this act.

SEC. 32. And be it further enacted, That each association organized in any of the cities named in the foregoing section shall select, subject to the approval of the comptroller of the currency, an association in the city of New York, at which it will redeem its circulating notes at par. And each of such associations may keep one half of its lawful money reserve in cash deposits in the city of New York. And each association not organized within the cities named in the preceding section shall select, subject to the approval of the comptroller of the currency, an association in either of the cities named in the preceding section at which it will redeem its circulating notes at par... [Provided].., That every association formed or existing under the provisions of this act shall take and receive at par, for any debt or liability to said association, any and all notes or bills issued by any association existing under and by virtue of this act.

SEC. 44. And be it further enacted, That any bank incorporated by special law, or any banking institution organized under a general law of any state, may, by authority of this act, become a national association under its provisions, by the name prescribed in its organization certificate... Provided, however, That no such association shall have a less capital than the amount prescribed for banking associations under this act.

SEC. 45. And be it further enacted, That all associations under this act, when designated for that purpose by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be depositaries of public money, except receipts from customs, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary; and they may also be employed as financial agents of the government; and they shall perform all such reasonable duties, as depositaries of public moneys and financial agents of the government, as may be required of them. And the Secretary of the Treasury shall require of the associations thus designated satisfactory security, by the deposit of United States bonds and otherwise, for the safe-keeping and prompt payment of the public money deposited with them, and for the faithful performance of their duties as financial agents of the government: Provided, That every association which shall be selected and designated as receiver or depositary of the public money shall take and receive at par all of the national currency bills, by whatever association issued, which have been paid in to the government for internal revenue, or for loans or stocks.

181. THE WADE-DAVIS BILL

The bill represented the reconstruction program of the majority in Congress, much severer than that advocated by Lincoln. The bill is here summarized from the Congressional Globe of July 1, 1864. Lincoln subjected the bill to a pocket veto. For his objections see No. 182.

Congressional Globe, Part 4 and Appendix 1, 38 Congress, I session, 1863-64, pp. 3448-3449.

RECONSTRUCTION BILL

MR. WADE. Let the bill which I have called up be now read. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill (H. R. No. 244) to guaranty to certain States whose governments have been usurped or

overthrown, a republican form of government, is now before the Senate as in Committee of the Whole, and will be read.

The bill was read.

The first section provides that in the States declared in rebellion against the United States, the President shall, by and with the advice. and consent of the Senate, appoint for each a provisional governor,.. who shall be charged with the civil administration of such State until a State government therein shall be recognized as hereinafter provided. The second section declares that so soon as the military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed in any such State, and the people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the United States, the provisional governor shall direct the marshal of the United States... to enroll all white male citizens of the United States resident in the State in their respective counties, and to request each one to take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, . . and if the persons taking that oath amount to a majority of the persons enrolled in the State, he is by proclamation to invite the loyal people of the State to elect delegates to a convention charged to declare the will of the people of the State relative to the reëstablishment of a State government, subject to and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States.

The fourth section provides that the delegates shall be elected by the loyal white male citizens of the United States of the age of twenty-one years, and resident at the time in the county, parish, or district in which they shall offer to vote, and enrolled as before provided, or absent in the military service of the United States,.. but no person who has held or exercised any office, civil or military, State or confederate, under the rebel usurpation, or who has voluntarily borne arms against the United States, is to vote or be eligible to be elected as delegate at such election.

The seventh section provides that the convention shall declare, on behalf of the people of the State, their submission to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and shall adopt the following provisions,.. and incorporate them in the constitution of the State, namely: First. No person who has held or exercised any office, civil or military, except offices merely ministerial and military offices below the grade of colonel... shall vote for or be a member of the Legislature, or Governor. Second. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, and

1864] Lincoln's Objections to the Wade-Davis Bill

521

the freedom of all persons is guarantied in said State. Third. No debt, State or confederate, created by or under the sanction of the usurping power, shall be recognized or paid by the State.

By section twelve, all persons held to involuntary servitude or labor in the States referred to are emancipated and discharged therefrom, and they and their posterity are declared to be forever free. And if any such persons or their posterity shall be restrained of liberty, under pretense of any claim to such service or labor, the courts of the United States shall, on habeas corpus, discharge them.

182. LINCOLN'S OBJECTIONS TO THE WADE-DAVIS BILL July 8, 1864.

Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Federal edition, vol. 7, pp. 168-170.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

A Proclamation.

WHEREAS at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; and

Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him; and

Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for restoring the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the people for their consideration:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in December last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for restoration) unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration, and while I am also unprepared to declare that the free State constitutions and governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be