Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-03
! pnErENDED ACT OF ..GRAcr


ported to the House of Representatives
last week by Gen. Butler, as Chairman of
the Committee on Reconstruction. 1t
claims to provide for ''full and general
grace, amnesty, and oblivion of certain
wrongful acts, etc., done by SoutLerners
engaged in sfhe late unpleasantness,
with q full restoration of all their rights
and privileges. The Baltimore Gazette
says: SIT is characteristic of the man
who reports this bill that it should bear a
falsehood on its face. 1t grants no gen
eral amnesty, it RENTS no pains and pen
allies, and returns none of the property
Of Southerners which has been seized and
confscated by the agents of the Federal
Government, or of which they have been
deprived by forced sale for taxes. On the
contrary, the classes excepted from all the
provisions of the act are go numerous
that, under cover of a pretended
act of grace, the effect of the
bill would be not only to perma
nently disfranchise nearly every man at
the South whose right to vote is al present
denied, but would also secure to the pres
emit holders full and undisturbed posses
sion of the real and personal property of
which SouthernerS have been deprived
under various pretexts. That we have
not exaggerated the insidiodsly malignant
purpose of this bill will be evident enough
to any intelligent mind when we say that
it excerpts all Southerners from, what is
mockingly called, IAN act of grace and
| amnesty, who were graduates at West
Point and Annapolis, and took service
under the Confederacy; all who were men,
bers of the Congress of the United States;
all members of the Confederate Congress,
all who had been at the head of an
Executive Department; all who were
United States Judges, or who
/ held a like Office in the Confederate
States; all Governors of States Sin rebel
lion;' all who may be accused of treating
Federal prisoners cruelty; all postmasters
alleged to be in default to the Govern
ment when the war broke out, and all
others who had charge of moneys OF
stores at the South belonging to the Fed
| eral Government which have not been &C.
counted for. There are two other clauses
which are far more sweeping. One Of
these excerpts from the benefits of the
bill tall persons who have either Uoted
| for, or signed any ordinance of seces.
sion.' The other excerpts all property
acquired by any levy, judgment, o.
escheat made and executed upOI
any lands or tenemcnts, goods
chattels, or any other valuable
1 thing whatever, and any sale or forfeit
ure by confiscation or taxation, whereby
any rights or titles have become vested
either in the United States or in third
persons The effect of the first of thest
clauses, we have specially noted, il i
were carried out according to its litera
sense, would be to continue the politica
disabilities of nearly all Southerners whose
right 10 vote has heretofore been chal
lenged. Of the eleven Southern States
the ordinances of secession were passed,
in Convention only, in South Carolina,
Georgia, Mississippi, Florida and Ala
bama. In Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas,
North Carolina, Tennessee and Virgins
they were submitted to the vote of The
people. Are we wrong then in saying
that all those who voted in these six
States for the ordinances of secession are
to be excepted from the benefits
OF the amnesty bill, in addition TO the
classes already mentioned 1t looks like
| it, and it is SO thoroughly in consonanct
| with the known malignity of the man who
reported the bill that few people vii
doubt that such was his intention. The
con1scation clause, in like manner, con
firms and perpetuates the right of TIT
negroes and carpet-baggers and Northern
Spectators to the lands, tenements.
goods, chattels, or other valuable thing
whatever which once belonged Il
Southerners, but which have been seize(
and appropriated by Federal agents, or BY
parties in collision with them. And thu!
this bill of grace and amnesty is to bC
made the means of securing to Butlel
himself, and multitude of Others ikt
unto him, vast amount of property
acquired, in some few instances undel
color of law, but for the most part by
force and fraud"