The tri-weekly news. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1865-1876, 1865-06-17
Con fiscstiCh Under the Amnesty Pro-
4 olamationIts Very Limited Ex-

Con fiscatf0h Under the Amnesty Fro.
olamationTIts Very Limited Ex-
tent. fgfs
The law of July, 1862, and President
Lincolns proclamation consequent there.
upon, imposed the penalty of forfeiture
of the entire property, real and personal,
upon every man who should continue,
after sixty days, to participate in, or in
any manner abet, the rebellion. 1t was
a trenchant measure, of much the same
character as the enactment of the Con-
federate Congress, ten months previous,
which smote all sorts and descriptions
of property belonging to "alien enemies"
that is to say, to friends of the Union.
Were this law now to be carried out, it
would make nearly every Southern man
and woman houseless, landless, penniless;
for nearly every Southern man and wo-
man has in some way participated in
the rebellion since that time.
The Amnesty Proclamation Of Presi.
dent johnson relieves all from this for
feiture, excepting those embraced within
the fourteen categories specified. Its
practical effect is to lift the liability to
confscation from nearly every Southern
farm and plantation. Comparatively
few of the owners of farms and planta.
tions come within the range Of the desig.
mated exceptions. The men who served
in the Confederate Congress, and who
filled the Confederate Offices, were mostly
lawyers, or professional politicians who
had nothing to do with agriculture. The
military officers above the rank ofColonel
were mostly officers of the old national
army, who had lived in garrison, and
ownrd little or no real estate. The
planters and farmers of the South almost
universally remained at home without
any official connection with the Con
federate Government. This was in ac
cordance not only with their own habits
and dispositions, but with the policy of
that government ;.--one of its chic
solicitudes being to secure for its great
armies adequate subsistence The only
one of the exceptions specified, which, tt
any extent, touches the planting and
farming classes Of the South, is that which
excludes from the benefit ofthe amnesty
| all abettefs of he rebellion who have
taxable property valued at more thar
twenty thousand dollars. But the rava
ges of the war; the loss of slave property
the disorganization of the whole labo
system, and the uncertainties of the fu
ture, have so greatly reduced all of th
old agricultural values, that it is safe t
say that not one in one hundred of tn
present landholders of the South ha
taxable property to the amount name,
in.this proclamation.
There will be then, at most bnt com
paratiyely little conhscation of Southerl
lands. This fact, we doubt not vii
| give general satisfaction. Tile objec
ofthe original law was not retributiv
but restorative. 1t was hoped that tn
| property-holders of the South would b
influenced by the fear OF ruin to talk
advantage Of the sixty days grace pre-
sented by the Presidents proclamation
and return to their allegiance. Perhap
some such effect might have followed
had Mcclellan taken, Richmond with
the two monthes, as was then expecteS
But the Southern people could find notl
ing in his disasters 10 assure chem OF th
/ ability of the government to reestablis
its power. No Southern man, at ths
time. however personally attached |
the old flag, could conclude from OF
method of conducting the war, that Ii
rebellion would be overcome; and.it
4 not at all strange that Southern propert,
holders did not withdaw from the rebe
lion Attic time, in pursuance OF Pres
dent Lincoln's call and warning
[New York Times.
j MEMORIAL TO THE PRESIDENT G
THE UNITED STATEs.---We give belo,
sayS the Cha rleato,, n,,,,.,s..i ~ q ~.