Year: 1868

EXPIRATION OF TERMS OF OFFICE.


Gen. Candy has replied as follows to communi.
cation from Gov. Orr, relative to the time at which
he is to vacate his office:


HEADo'Rs ID MILITARY DISTRICT,


CHARLESTON May l, 1868.
HIS Ercelency James L. On, Governor Of South


Carolina.


SIR: have the honor to acknowledge the re.
ceipt of your communication of the 9th ultimo,
making the inquiry as to the time when ''the du,
ties of the provisional officers of the Executive De-
partment Of the present State Government will ter
inmate, and when the officers elected under the
new Constitution will qualify and enter upon their
duties and to state in reply, that the fifth section
of the law of March 2, 1867, so provide for the
more efficient government Of the rebel States d.
rects that when the Constitution shall have been
ratified by the people of the State, and "shal have
been submitted to Congress for examination and
approval, and Congress shall have approved the
same; and when said State, by vote of its Legis-
lature elected under the new Constitution Of the
United States proposed by the thirty-ninth Con-
gress and known as article fourteen and when said
article shall have become part of the Constitu-
ton of the United States said State representation
in Congress, and Senators and Representatives
shall be admitted therefrom, upon taking the oath
prescribed by law"


The sixth section of the same law enacts, "that
until the people of said rebel States shall be by
law admitted to representation in the Congress OF
the United States, any civil government which
may exist therein shall be provisional only, and in all
respects subject to the paramount authority of the
United States at any time to abolish, modify, con-
troll or supersede the same and in all elections to
any Office under such provisional governments, all
persons shall be entitled to vote and none others,
who are entitled to vote under the fifth section of
this Act; and no person shall be eligible to any
Office under such provisional governments who
would be disqualified from holding Office under the
provisions of the third article of said constitutional
amendment.


1t will be seen that the Government organized
under the new Constitution remains provisional
not only until Congress shall have approved that
Constitution, but until the Legislature shall have
adopted the amendment to the Constitution of the
United States known as article fourteen, and that
article shall have become part of the Constitution
of the United States, and the State shall by law be
admitted to representation in Congress.


It is very desirable that the organization of the
new Government should take place as soon as prac-
ticable after the approval of the Constitution by
Congress, that the retirement Of the oldand the in
stallation of the new executive officers should take
place at the same time, and in formal and regu-
lar manner. 1t is presumed that Congress will act
speedily upon the question of approving the Con-
stitution that has been submitted, and that it will
fix the date when the executive officers elected un-
der it shall enter upon their duties.


If this should not be done, the duty of fixing the
date will devolve upon the District Commander; !;
and propose, in the order announcing the results
of the election to designate the tenth day after the
approval of the Constitution by Congress, as the
day on which the duties of the provisional officers
of the Executive Department of the present State
Government will terminate, and when the cores
ponding officers elected under the new Constitution
will enter upon their duties. Very respectfully,
your obedient servant,


EDWARD CANDY,


Brevet Maj. Gen. Commanding.