NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 20, 1865

• Formal end of the American Civil War
• President Andrew Johnson message signed

Page 4 has some nice Reconstruction reports, perhaps the most notable being the: "Message From the President" to the Senate, dated Dec. 18, in which he formally announces the successful suppression of the Rebellion. It mentions near the beginning: "...I have the honor to state that the rebellion waged by a portion of the people against the properly constituted authority of the Government of the United States has been suppressed; that the United States are in possession of every State in which the insurrection existed..." and further on also notes: "...the proposed amendment to the Constitution, providing for the abolition of slavery forever within the limits of the country, has been ratified by each one of those States, with the exception of Mississippi...". This notable message is signed in type: Andrew Johnson.
Other column heads: "The Thirty-Ninth Congress" "He Favors the Immediate Restoration of All the State Governments in the South" "Lieut. Gen. Grant takes the Same Ground in His Report" "The Payment of Rebel War Debts to be Forever Prohibited" and more.
Eight pages, a bit irregular at the spine from disbinding, good condition.

Background: Published on Page 4 of the December 20, 1865 edition of The New York Times, this official "Message From the President" to the U.S. Senate—signed in type by Andrew Johnson and dated December 18—is a rare and historic primary source that captures the pivotal formal declaration of the end of the American Civil War. The issue holds significant historic value as it documents Johnson's official declaration that the military rebellion was completely suppressed and that the federal government was once again in full control of every former Confederate state. Beyond proclaiming the physical end of the insurrection, the text highlights a monumental constitutional milestone: documenting that the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery had been ratified by every Southern state with the single exception of Mississippi, which famously refused to ratify it at the time. Original printings of The New York Times from this immediate post-Civil War era are scarce historical artifacts, uniquely capturing the delicate transition from wartime conflict to Presidential Reconstruction at the exact moment the United States officially enshrined the legal abolition of slavery into its Constitution.