136 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



either party, which shall bring up the record in such 

 case to the Supreme Court, and have all other rights 

 and incidents as to time, form, and manner of proce- 

 dure as other cases of appeal from a circuit court ; 

 and for this purpose the orders or decrees in that 

 behalf of the circuit court shall not be deemed inter- 

 locutory but final. And the Supreme Court shall, up- 

 on said appeal, consider and determine the question 

 whether said cause, suit, plaint, or indictment arose 

 out of or concerning any act done, or omitted to be 

 done, mentioned in the first section of this act, and 

 not hereinafter cxcepted, and shall enter such order 

 or judgment thereon as the circuit court ought to 

 have entered, it being the meaning and intention of 

 this act that no person or body corporate, politic, or 

 municipal, or their successors or legal representa- 

 tives, shall be sued, vexed, or unquieted in their 

 bodies, goods, chattels, lanas, or tenements for any 

 matter, cause, contempt, misdemeanor, forfeiture, 

 trespass, offence, or any other thing done, or com- 

 mitted, or omitted to be done or committed, between 

 said llth day of April, in the year 1861, and the 20th 

 day of August, in the year 1866, arising from, grow- 

 ing out of, belonging to, or in any way appertain- 

 ing to, the prosecution of the war against the States 

 lately in rebellion, or in the prosecution of the war 

 by them against the United States, or by any person 

 or persons engaged therein, either directly or indi- 

 rectly, but only For such causes, matters, and offences 

 as may be mentioned as exceptions in this present 

 act, and for none other. And whenever any suit or 

 proceeding, civil or criminal, at law or in equity, 

 shall involve an inquiry into any of the offences enu- 

 merated in the first section hereof, this act shall be 

 adjudged to be an act of amnesty and oblivion for all 

 such offences, and such causes shall proceed and 

 judgment shall be rendered as if no such offences 

 had been committed, except as hereinafter excepted. 

 SEO. 3. And be it further enacted, That the follow- 

 ing classes of persons, and the rights, titles, and 

 causes of action and matters hereinafter set forth, 

 shall be excepted from all provisions of this act, and 

 none other : 



1. Whoever, having been educated at the Military 

 Academy at West Point, or the Naval School at An- 

 napolis, shall have engaged in the rebellion and in- 

 surrection against the United States, or given aid 

 and comfort to the enemies thereof. 



2. Whoever, having been a member of either 

 House of Congress of the United States, shall have 

 engaged in rebellion against the same, or given aid 

 and comfort to the enemies thereof, and whoever 

 was a member of the so-called Confederate Con- 

 gress. 



3. Whoever shall have held the office of head of 

 one of the Executive Departments of the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, or minister plenipoten- 

 tiary, or minister resident, or judge of any court 

 under the United States, and shall have engaged in 

 rebellion or insurrection against the same, or given 

 aid and comfort to the enemies thereof ; and whoever 

 shall have held either of the like offices under the 

 so-called Confederate States. 



4. Whoever as a member of a convention shall 

 have voted for or signed any ordinance of secession 

 of any State, or whoever shall have held the office of 

 Governor of such State while the same was in rebel- 

 lion. 



5. Whoever, while in the service of the so-called 

 Confederate States, treated with cruelty, or other- 

 wise than according to the usages of war, any pris- 

 oner of war held by authority of the so-called Con- 

 federate States. 



6. Whoever, having charge and custody of the 

 public moneys of the United States, intrusted to 

 them between said dates, have not duly accounted 

 for and paid over the same ; and whoever shall have 

 embezzled or secreted public stores, public goods, 

 chattels, moneys, provisions, or military and naval 

 property of the United States. 



7. All deserters from the Army and Navy of the 

 United States, and all bounty-jumpers. 



8. All property and rights of property acquired by 

 any levy, judgment, or extent made and executed 

 upon any lands or tenements, goods and chattels, or 

 other valuable thing whatever, and any sale or for- 

 feiture by confiscation or taxation, whereby any 

 rights or titles have become vested either in the 

 United States or in third persons. 



9. Every piece and parcel of land, however it may 

 be described or bounded, which now is or has been 

 used as a cemetery in which the bodies of the soldiers 

 of the United States are interred, which is in the oc- 

 cupation of the United States for the purpose of a 

 cemetery, which parcels of land are hereby declared 

 the property of the United States in fee by capture 

 in war, and forever dedicated to the uses and purposes 

 of cemeteries for the soldiers of the United States 

 heretofore interred or hereafter to be interred therein. 

 and to be under the sole jurisdiction of the United 

 States for such purposes inalienable forever : Pro- 

 yided,, That nothing herein contained shall affect or 

 impair the validity of any act of Congress removing 

 the political disabilities of any person herein ex- 

 cepted from the benefit of the provisions of this act. 

 and that all persons whose political disabilities shall 

 have heretofore been removed shall be entitled to 

 all the benefits conferred by this act. 



10. Every right of action and liability arising upon 

 any ordinance, law, or contract in aid of rebellion, 

 and every such right shall be deemed invalid. 



SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That this act of 

 amnesty and oblivion shall extend to all acts and 

 omissions made, or done, or omitted to be done, by 

 any officer or soldier or other agent of the United 

 States, in carrying out or putting in execution the 

 laws of the United States Known as the reconstruc- 

 tion acts, and the other acts for the government of 

 the rebellious States, however the same may be en- 

 titled, as fully, and with the same benefit, and to the 

 same extent, as if said acts or omissions had been 

 done or omitted by such officers and soldiers during 

 the war of the rebellion. 



Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, said: "Mr. 

 Speaker, no more important subject has 

 been or will be presented to Congress at tins 

 session than the one now before you. The 

 first proposition to which I wish to call the 

 attention of the House is the difference between 

 pardon and amnesty. There have been no 

 more fruitful subjects of error than these. 



" The Constitution of the United States puts 

 in the power of the Executive to grant re- 

 prieves and pardons. It does not put within 

 the power of the Executive to grant amnesty. 

 Amnesty can only be proclaimed by the Exec- 

 utive in accordance with an act of Congress. 

 And this distinction was well known by the 

 Government from whom we derived so many 

 of our laws, in that land from which AVC de- 

 rived so many of our institutions. In our first 

 section, we have recited every class of persons 

 and every act done or omitted, and then have 

 pardoned, amnestied, spread the mantle of 

 oblivion and forgiveness over every thing done 

 during the war, as well on the one side as on 

 the other. You will see that all quarrels, sins, 

 omissions, commissions, that every tiling is 

 covered by the mantle of oblivion, so that wo 

 may have peace. 



" I would, for one, that the state of the loy- 

 alty and obedience to the laws in the Southern 

 country was to-day such that we could with 



