page_title: Pardon of Richard Nixon
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Pardon of Richard Nixon / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Ink pen used by President Gerald R. Ford to pardon Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974. Gift of National Archives and Records Administration.
context_page_description: The pardon of Richard Nixon was a presidential proclamation issued by President of the United States Gerald Ford on September 8, 1974. By it, Ford granted to Richard Nixon, his predecessor, a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes that he might have committed against the United States as president. In particular, the pardon covered Nixon's actions during the Watergate scandal. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford, who had succeeded to the presidency upon Nixon's resignation, explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country and that the Nixon family's situation was "a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must."
  After Ford left the White House in 1977, he privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision that suggested that a pardon carries an imputation of guilt and that its acceptance carries a confession of guilt.
context_section_description: With Nixon's resignation, Congress dropped  its impeachment proceedings against him. Criminal prosecution was still a possibility both on the federal and state level.
  In October 1974, Nixon fell ill with phlebitis. Told by his doctors that he could either be operated on or die, a reluctant Nixon chose surgery, and Ford visited him in the hospital. Nixon was under subpoena for the trial of three of his former aides (John Dean, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman) and The Washington Post, disbelieving his illness, printed a cartoon showing Nixon with a cast on the "wrong foot." Judge John Sirica excused Nixon's presence despite the defendants' objections. Congress instructed Ford to retain Nixon's presidential papers, which began a three-decade legal battle over the documents that was eventually won by the former president and his estate. Nixon was in the hospital when the 1974 midterm elections were held, and Watergate and the pardon were contributing factors to the Republican loss of 43 seats in the House and three in the Senate. Two years later, lingering public resentment over the pardon was a factor in Ford's narrow loss to Democratic Party nominee Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election.
  After Ford left the White House in 1977, he privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision that suggests that a pardon carries an imputation of guilt and that acceptance carries a confession of guilt. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon. In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon of Nixon, but later stated that history had proven Ford to have made the correct decision.
caption: Pen used by President Gerald R. Ford to pardon Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, in the collection of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
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