faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and
to take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and

Whereas the rebellion which has been waged by a portion of the people of
the United States against the properly constituted authorities of the
Government thereof in the most violent and revolting form, but whose
organized and armed forces have now been almost entirely overcome, has
in its revolutionary progress deprived the people of the State of North
Carolina of all civil government; and

Whereas it becomes necessary and proper to carry out and enforce the
obligations of the United States to the people of North Carolina in
securing them in the enjoyment of a republican form of government:

Now, therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed upon
me by the Constitution of the United States and for the purpose of
enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a State government
whereby justice may be established, domestic tranquillity insured, and
loyal citizens protected in all their rights of life, liberty, and
property, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States and
Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do hereby
appoint William W. Holden provisional governor of the State of North
Carolina, whose duty it shall be, at the earliest practicable period, to
prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for
convening a convention composed of delegates to be chosen by that
portion of the people of said State who are loyal to the United States,
and no others, for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution
thereof, and with authority to exercise within the limits of said State
all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the
State of North Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional