The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-09-10
THE PRESIDENTS PROCLAMATION or
AMNESTY.

frlenuS.
THE PRESIDENTS PROCLAMATION OF
AMNESTY.
The Presidents proclamation Of amnesty.
which we published yesterday, grants full par
don to all persons who directly or indirectly
participated in the late rebellion, excepting
only the following persons and classes Of per
sons:
1st The Chief or pretended Chief Executive
officers, including the President, the Vice Presi-
dent, and all heads of departments OF the pretend
ed Confederate or rebel government and all who
we're agents thereof in foreign States or countries,
and all who hold or pretended to hold in the SER
vice of the said pretended Confederate govern
ment, military rank or title above the grade OF
Brigadier- General, or naval rank or title above
that of Captain, and all who were, or pretended to
be, Governors OF States, while maintaining, abet-
ting or submitting to and acquiescing in the rebel
lion.
Q. ALI persons who in any way treated otherwise
than as lawful prisoners OF war persons who in any
capacity were employed or engaged IN the military
or naval service OF the United States.
8. ALI persons who at the time they may seek to
obtain the benefits of this proclamation actual
ly in civil military or naval confinement, or GUS
tody, or legally held to bail either engaged direct
ly or indirectly in the assassination Of the late
President of the United States, or in any plot or
conspiracy in any manner Herewith connected.
The New York Tribune goes off on a side
issue, and calling the proclamation an amnesty,
declares that the President has no authority for
of its own act on the subject Grant this to
be an amnesty and the position of the Tribune
is still incorrect. ''The Constitution author
ICES the President to grant reprieves and par
dons for offences against the United States ex-
cept in cases of impeachment" Chief Justice
MARSHALL, in the case of MARBURY vs.. MADI-
SON, Cranch, 178, said, eff the Courts are to
regard the constitution, and the constitution is
superior to any ordinary act of the legislature,
the constitution, and not such ordinary act, is
to govern" and further on in the same case
vation that in declaring what shall be the
supreme law Of the land the Constitution itself
is first mentioned and not the laws of the
United States generally, but only those which
shall be made in pursuance Of the constitution
shall have that rank" 1t may be antiquated
to quote the Supreme Court of the United
States at time when military bills, civil rights
bills, and reconstruction laws are enforced by
sword, bayonet and artillery, but we love to
believe that virtue is not dead in America and
that the constitution is still living instru-
ment which will again lead our entire nation
back to its former liberty.
BoUviER in his law dictionary lays down
that amnesty and pardon are very different
though both are the acts of the same authority,
the one causes the crime or misdemeanor to be
forgotten, the other exempts the individual
from punishment. A pardon is given to- one
who certainly is guilty. Amnesty to those who
NAV have been so. The President pardons
every one who has been guilty of treason, ex-
cept few specially named, on condition that
they comply with certain acquisitions. To
each man is given special pardon on certain
terms Had he right to do this =? If the
Constitution is the Supreme law Of the land he
certainly had. If the opinions of the New
York Tribune are the Supreme law of the land,
he certainly had not. No one will doubt that
Mr. Justice MARSHALL, Mr.. ALEXANDER HAM
1LToN and Mr. Justice Story are better and
wiser Interpreters of the law than Mr.. HORACE
GREELY and the whole corps of Tribune
writer's. What MARSHALL said has al
ready been stated. ALEXANDER HAMILTON
in the Federalist No. "a, says, in speaking
of the very point now under consideration
"the principal argument for reposing the
power of pardoning in this ease in the Chief
Magistrate is this: in seasons Of insurrection
or rebellion there are often critical moments
when we'll timed offer of pardon to the insur
gents or rebels may restore the tranquility of
the Commonwealth. The loss of
week. a day, an hour, may sometimes be
fatal" elf it should be observed" he goes on
to say, "that a discretionary power with a
view to such contingencies might be OCCASION
ally conferred upon the President, it may be
answered in the first place, that it is questiona-
BILE whether in limited constitution that power
could be delegated by law" In speaking Of
the power to pardon, Mr.. Justice STORY says
in his book on the Constitution 1904, "the
power of the remission of fines, penalties and
forfeitures is included in it. X No law
can abridge the Constitutional rights of the
Executive Department"
Let it not be understood that the pardon of
the President entities party to register or
vote 1t RENTS the penalty but it does not
obliterate the offence If it did obliterate the
offence it could not affect the powers assumed
by Congress in its Reconstruction Acts. These
Acts, declare who can, and who cannot vote
without any regard to the Constitution. They
have fixed the status of every man independent
ly of the President. That they are unconstitu-
tional, we never have doubted, but we are
equally as certain that power gives to those
Acts all of the force of law.
RADICALISM IS DESTRUCTION.