The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-04-30
Extract from the Report Of the Hon.
Mr.. Rogers on the Modification OF the
Test Oath.

1Cbt OhLu'
The following is portion of the minority
report, 10 Congress, by the Hon. A. ]. Rogers,
(Democrat5 on this matter:
Leading men and leading journals of the
Radical school in the North Invited the South
to secede. will only quote from one leading
journal of the North The New York 7rf-
bune of February 20, 1851, says
Whenever it shall be clear that the great
body of the Southern people have become con-
clusively alienated from the Union, and anx-
ious to escape it, we will do our best to for
ward their views"
Again, the same paper, Of date March, 2,
1881, we have this clear statement ON the
same point: .#
eve have. repeatedly said, and we once
more insist, that the great principle embodied
by Jefferson in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, that Governments derive their just
powers from the consent Of the governed, is
sound and just; and that if the slave States,
the cotton States, or the Gulf States only,
choose to form an independent nation, they
have moral right to do So"
But while we were in the midst Of war, Mr.
Greeley, In the Tribune. on the 21st Of Feb
ruary, 1868, said
II was willing, in the winter Of 166O-6l, to
Let the cotton States go, if they really desired
it. / was not only then willing that the
Union should in good faith make them the
offer, but no,o DEEPLY REGRET that 1t was
not made and acted on"
The people of the South had at least en-
enlargement from the North to secede, and
bad right to believe that the principal pa
pers of the Republican party enuuciated its
sentiments.
The test oath ought to be repealed, at least
to all who have received pardon, for the legal
effect of q pardon Is to restore them to all the
rights they enjoyed before the commission Of
the offence, the same as if no offence had ever
been committed; and as most of them have
been pardoned, the repeal Or modification of
the oath to them would not make it difficult
to procure suitable persons in the South to
execute the business of the Treasury and POST
office Departments to be executed there.
Chief Justice Marshall in the case Of the
United States Us Wilson, 7 Peters, 1872, speak
ing on this subject Of pardons in England,
said:
GAS tho power has been exercised from
time immemorial by the Executive Of that ma
ton whose language is our language, and to
whose judicial institutions ours bear close re-
ssmblance, we adopt their principles respect
ing the operation and effect of pardon, and
look into their BOOKS for the rules prescribing
the manner in which 1t is to be used by the
person who would avail himself of it"
In Bacon's .Abridgment, page 4l6, it is
said:
1T was formerly doubted whether pardon
could do more than take away the punish
ment, leaving the crime and Its disabling con-
sequences unremoved. But it is now settled
hat rl1 l>S, I'm. R;rry ht,
any act of Parliament, removes not only the
sequsst upon the crime.
The doctrine is thus stated in Bishop on
Criminal Law, 71s:
"The effect of full pardon is to absolve the
party from all the legal consequences Of his
crime, and of his conviction direct and COL
lateral, Including the punishment whether Of
else the law provided"
Also in Bacon's Abridgement 1t is laid
down;
ut seems agreed that a pardon oftreason or
felony, even after an attainder, so far clears
the party from the infamy, and all other con-
sequences thereof, that he may have an action
against any who shall afterward call him a
traitor or felon, for the pardon makes him
as it wer "NEw MAN"
Blackstone says:
"a pardon may be pleaded in bar as at
once destroying the end purpose of the in
dictment, by renting the punishment which
the prosecution is calculated to inhict"
Also:
"The effect of such pardon by the king
is to make the offender new man, to acquit
him of all corporal punishment and forefei-
lures annexed to that offence for which he
obtains his pardon"
In Lillys Abridgement the doctrine is
thus laid down:
"a pardon doth discharge not only the
punishment which was to have been inflicted
upon the person that did commit the offence
pardoned, but the guilt of the offence itself
1t pardons culpa so clearly that in the eye of
the law the offender is as innocent as if he
had never committed the offence"
In view then of all the surrounding circum-
stances, it does appear that we should lay
our party prejudices aside, elevate ourselves
to the situation of affairs, and modify the
oath, SO far as OF least, as is recommended by
the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury and the
Hon. Postmaster General and the President
of the United States. a
RETuRN THE JEwELs.--During the es.-
cupation of the town of Port Royal, in the
State OF Virginia, by the Federal troops, in
May, 1864, the Masonic Lodge rooms of Lodge
No. 2 were broken open, and the Silver jew
els taken thereirom. They were presented to
the Lodge by Brother of the Grand Lodge
Of Scotland, over one hundred years ago. and
were much valued. The Lodge now desires
that if they shall come into the hands of any
Masonic brother, he will forward them to
Baltimore, to the care of Captain Kirwin, Of
the steamer Mary Washington, who will re-