CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



isa 



That no person shall bo a Senator or Representa- 

 tive in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- 

 I'resuU'iit, <>r hold any office, civil or military, under 

 the United States, or under any State, who, having 

 nsly taken an oath, us a member of Congress, 

 or as an officer of the United States, or us u member 

 of uny State Legislature, or as au executive or judi- 

 cial officer of any State, to support the Constitution 

 of the United States, shall have engaged in insur- 

 ii or rebellion against the same, or given aid or 

 comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, 

 by u vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such 

 disability. 



" It has been variously estimated that this 

 section at the time of its original insertion in 

 the Constitution included somewhere from 

 fourteen to thirty thousand persons ; as nearly 

 as I can gather together the facts of the case, 

 it included about eighteen thousand men in 

 the South. It let go every man of the hundreds 

 of thousands or millions if you please who 

 had been engaged in the attempt to destroy 

 this Government, and only held those under 

 disability who, in addition to revolting, had 

 violated a special, and peculiar, and personal 

 oath to support the Constitution of the United 

 States. It was limited to that. 



"Well, that disability was hardly placed 

 upon the South until we began in this Hall and 

 in the other wing of the Capitol, when there 

 were more than two-thirds Republicans in 

 both branches, to remit it, and the very first 

 bill took that disability off from 1,578 citizens 

 of the South ; and the next bill took it off 

 from 3,526 gentlemen by wholesale. Many 

 of the gentlemen on this floor came in for 

 grace and amnesty in those two bills. After 

 these bills specifying individuals had passed, 

 and others, of smaller numbers, which I will 

 not recount, the Congress of the United States 

 in 1872, by two-thirds of both branches, still 

 being two-thirds Republican, passed this gen- 

 eral law : 



That all political disabilities imposed by the third 

 section of the fourteenth article of amendments of 

 the Constitution of the United States are hereby re- 

 moved from all persons whomsoever, except Sena- 

 tors and Representatives of the Thirty-sixth and 

 Thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the judicial, 

 military, and naval service of the United States, 

 heads of Departments, and foreign ministers of the 

 United States. 



"Since that act passed a very considerable 

 number of the gentlemen which it still left 

 under disability have been relieved specially, 

 by name, in separate acts. But I believe, Mr. 

 Speaker, in no single instance since the act of 

 May 22, 1872, have the disabilities been taken 

 from any man except upon his respectful peti- 

 tion to the Congress of the Unitea States that 

 they should be removed. And I believe in no 

 instance, except one, have they been refused 

 upon the petition being presented. I believe 

 in no instance, except one, has there been any 

 other than a unanimous vote. 



" Now, I find there are widely-varying opin- 

 ions in regard to the number that are still 

 under disabilities in the South. I have had 



occasion, by conference with the Department 

 of War and of the Navy, and with the iibsist- 

 ance of some records which I have caused to 

 bo searched, to be able to state to the House, 

 I believe with more accuracy than it has been 

 stated hitherto, just the number of gentlemen 

 in the South still under disabilities. Those 

 who were officers of the United States Army, 

 educated at its own expense at West Point 

 and who joined the rebellion, and are still in-, 

 eluded under this act, number, as nearly as 

 the War Department can figure it up, 825 ; 

 those in the Navy about 295. Those under 

 the other head, Senators and Representatives 

 of the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Con- 

 gresses, officers in the judicial service of the 

 United States, heads of Departments, and for- 

 eign ministers of the United States, make up a 

 number somewhat more difficult to state accu- 

 rately, but smaller in the aggregate. The 

 whole sum of the entire list is about it is 

 probably impossible to state it with entire ac- 

 curacy, and I do not attempt to do that is 

 about 750 persons now under disabilities. 



" I am very frank to say that in regard to 

 all these gentlemen, save one, I do not know 

 of any reason why amnesty should not be 

 granted to them as it has been to many others 

 of the same class. I am not here to argue 

 against it. The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 

 Kasson) suggests " on their application." I am 

 coming to that. But as I have said, seeing in 

 this list, as I have examined it with some care, 

 no gentleman to whom I think there would be 

 any objection, since amnesty has already be- 

 come so general and I am not going back of 

 that question to argue it I am in favor of 

 granting it to them. But in the absence of this 

 respectful form of application, which since May 

 22, 1872, has become a sort of common law, 

 as preliminary to amnesty, I simply wish to 

 put in that they shall go before a United States 

 court, and in open court, with uplifted hand, 

 swear that they mean to conduct themselves 

 as good citizens of the United States. That 

 is all. 



"Now, gentlemen may say that this is a 

 foolish exaction. Possibly it is. But somehow 

 or other I have a prejudice in favor of it. And 

 there are some petty points in it that appeal 

 as well to prejudice as to conviction. For one 

 I do not want to impose citizenship on any 

 gentleman. 



"In my amendment, Mr. Speaker, I have 

 excepted Jefferson Davis from its operation. 

 Now, I do not place it on the ground that Mr. 

 Davis was, as he has been commonly called, 

 the head and front of the rebellion, because 

 on that ground I do not think the exception 

 would be tenable. Mr. Davis was just as guil- 

 ty, no more so, no less so, than thousands of 

 others who have already received the benefit 

 and grace of amnesty. Probably he was far 

 less efficient as an enemy of the United States ; 

 probably he was far more useful as a disturber 

 of the councils of the Confederacy than many 



