Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-26
THE RELIEVED AND THE UNRE-
LIEVED BY THE AMNESTY ACT.

A Washington correspondent of the
New York Tribune, who is mistaken in
some particulars, says of the relieved and
unrelieved by the Amnesty Act recently
passed:
The number relieved by this act is esti-
mated by weIl-informed Southerners at not
less than 10000 persons of capacity and
experience, who, for six years past, have
been debarred from all participation in the
Federal, State, county, or municipal govern
ments. A number of prominent persons
disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment
are now dead, but nevertheless, very large
mass of native talent in the South is thus
rendered available for Federal and local en-
Payments. The exceptions, however, en-
brace a considerable number Of the con-
spicuous politicians of the South.
Among those still under disabilities are
ex-Senat0rs Clay and Fitzpatrick of Ala
bama; Robt. w. johnson of Arkansas;
Yulee and Mallory of Florida; Iverson and
Toombs of Georgia; Benjamin Of Louis
lana, now a citizen of Great Britain; Jeffer-
| son Davis and Albert @. Brown of Mssis-
sippi; Polk of Missouri; Chestnut of South
| Carolina; Nicholson of Tennessee; Wigfall
Of Texas; Hunter of Virginia, and the
following named ex-members of the House
of Representatives: Pugh and Curry of
Alabama; Rust of Arkansas; Scott of
| California; Hawkins of Florida; III.
]. Crawford snd Jackson of Georgia;
Lamar, Singleton, and McRae of Mississippi;
Smith and Vance Of North Carolina; Miles,
Mcqueen, Bonham, and Boyce of South
| Carolina; Avery and Thomas of Tennessee;
Reagan of Texas; De Jarnette, Pryor, b.
cock, Lenke, Smith, and Boteler of Virginia,
and others. The exception of the
| XXXVIIth Congress was made expressly
| to include Gen. j. G. Breckenridge of Ken
lucky, who left his seat as Senator from
Kentucky to aid the Confederacy, and
| served first as General and next as COnfed-
crate Secretary of War at Richmond.
The list of Judicial officers of the United
States still disqualified comprises eX-Su-
preme Court Justice John A. Campbell,
| now in large practice at New Orleans;
| Judges Walyburton and Brockenbrough of
! Virginia, and others. It is a question
| whether ex-U. S. Marshals or Districts-A
! torneys are or are not embraced in this eX-
| ceptiOn, and whether persons who had
| ceased to hold judicial positions when Sc
| cession commenced, and subsequently aid
ed it, are or are not relieved by the bill.
There were about $50 officers of the
| United States Army and Navy who left
| their places to aid the Rebellion, and OF
| these probably not one-half are now alive.
The law, however, is ambiguous, and the
exceptions may and probably do include all
| those who had even been educated al West
| Point, or who had resigned long anterior TO
| the Rebellion in which they participated.
| OF the number thus under disabilities are
Gen. Samuel Cooper, Confederate Adjutant
General at Richmond; Gems. Joseph
Johnston, Beauregard, Bragg, Sam
uel Jones, Hardee, Pemberton, Gus
tavus w. Smith, Hood, Stephen
| D. Lee, D. II. Hill, B. S. Ewell, Jubal A.
Early, G. w. Curtis Lea, now President of
Washington and Lee University; Dabney
II. MauTy, Fitzhugh Lee, Coils. r. b. Lee,
Larkin, Smith L. B. Northrop, S. q. Com
misary General, Myers, Quartermaster
General, and others; Cayt. Semmes, of the
Alabama, Prof. M. T. Maury, formerly
Chief of the Washington Observatory Capt.
Brooke, inventor of the Brooke gun, and of
the system of deep-sea sOundings, are the
most noted exceptions among ex-navy Off
GERS.
Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Secreta-
~ of the Interior, is the only Cabinet off
Ger of Buchanan now alive, who aidedNSe-
cession. But the exceptions include also
Gov. VIM. A. Graham, of North Carolina,
who was Secretary of the Navy under Mr..
Fillmore; G. M. Conrad, of Louisiana, eX-
Secretary of War, and possibly some others.
Henry r. jackson, of Georgia, and Gen.
Vim. Preston, of Kentucky, were foreign
ministers, and are therefore embraced in
these exceptions. II is hard to estimate
precisely the number still under disabilities,
but it would not be wide of the mark to
put the number at from 300 to 500 per-
sons.
The folly of retaining these exceptions,
in addition to the almost criminal error OF
an ambiguous statute, upon subject where
several penalties attach to an offender, is
exhibited by a glance at the number and
character of persons who are relieved.
These embrace not only many OF the most
active advocates of Secession, but also some
who since the war have been persistent
"Bourbons," and in one or more cases per-
sons who disdain a pardon. If VIM. Ia.
Yancy were alive, he would be relieved by
this act. Alexander II. Stephens Of Georgia,
Vice President of the Southern COntederacy,
is relieved; also Gov Henry A. Wise Of Vir-
giuia, who boasts that he never asked for an
Executive pardon; Gen. Forrest Of TenneS-
see; Gov. Letcher of Virginia, who ordered
the seizure of Harper's Ferry; Gen. Wade
Hampton of South Carolina; the Hon. Ben
iamin Hill of Georgia; Herschel Y. john
son, who ran on the ticket with Stephen A.
Douglas in 1860; Robert Barnwell Rhett of
South Carolina, the oldest Secessionist Of
the whole South; James A. Sedden Of Vir-
ginia, Confederate Secretary of War; l.. p.
Walker of Alabama; Robert w. Barnwell
of South Carolina, Confederate Senator,
and probably the most infexible opponent
of Reconstruction In the winter of 1664-5;
Col. G. A. Henry of Tennessee; the Hon.
Allen I. Caperton of West Virginia, Con-
federate Senator; Lyon, Chiffon and Dargan
of Alabama; A. w. Garland of Arkansas; A.
r. Wright of Georgia; ]. w. Moore of Ken
lucky; Duncan F. Kenner and John Per-
n IL