Proclamation 148, Revoking the Suspension of Habeas Corpus

What it is

This is a written proclamation issued by Andrew Johnson as President of the United States, dated at Washington on the first day of December, 1865. It states that an earlier proclamation of 15 September 1863 had suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases. Johnson declares that this suspension and all other orders suspending habeas corpus are revoked, except in named states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of New Mexico and Arizona. The text is preserved on Wikisource.

Why it matters

Habeas corpus protects people from being held without a court hearing. Wartime suspensions allowed the government to detain people without that protection. Ending the suspension in most places was one step in the postwar period, when Johnson and Congress disagreed sharply about how the defeated Southern states should be governed. The exceptions list shows which regions the government still treated as special cases.

Look closer

• Which places are excepted from the proclamation, and why might the government have kept the suspension there?
• The proclamation says the reasons for the suspension 'may be regarded as having ceased' in some places. Who decided that, and what does the wording leave out?
• How does a short legal document like this one affect ordinary people who were not named in it?