1872 U.S. law revoking the punishments imposed by the 14th Amendment on most ex-Confederates
Amnesty Act of 1872
Long title
An Act to remove political Disabilities imposed by the fourteenth Article of the Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.
Nicknames
Amnesty Act of 1872
Enacted by
the 42nd United States Congress
Citations
Public law
Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 42–193
Statutes at Large
17 Stat. 142
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 2761 by Benjamin Butler (R–MA) on May 13, 1872[1]
Passed the House on May 13, 1872 (voice vote[2])
Passed the Senate on May 21, 1872 (38-2[3])
Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on May 22, 1872
The Amnesty Act of 1872 is a United States federal law passed on May 22, 1872, which removed most of the penalties imposed on former Confederates by the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted on July 9, 1868. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the election or appointment to any federal or state office of any person who had held any of certain offices and then engaged in insurrection, rebellion, or treason. However, the section provides that a two-thirds vote by each House of the Congress could override this limitation. The 1872 act was passed by the 42nd United States Congress and the original restrictive Act was passed by the United States Congress in May 1866.[4]
Specifically, the 1872 Act removed office-holding disqualifications against most of the secessionists who rebelled in the American Civil War, except for "Senators and Representatives of the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the judicial, military, and naval service of the United States, heads of departments, and foreign ministers of the United States."[5]
In the spirit of the act, then United States President Ulysses S. Grant, by proclamation dated June 1, 1872, directed all district attorneys having charge of proceedings and prosecutions against those who had been disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment to dismiss and discontinue them, except as to persons who fall within the exceptions named in the act.[5] President Grant also pardoned all but 500 former top Confederate leaders.
The 1872 law cleared over 150,000 former Confederate troops who had taken part in the American Civil War.
^Congressional Globe, 42nd Congress, 2nd Session, 1872, p. 3381
^Congressional Globe, 42nd Congress, 2nd Session, 1872, p. 3382
^Rawley, James A. (December 1960). "The General Amnesty Act of 1872: A Note". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 47 (3). Organization of American Historians: 480–484. doi:10.2307/1888879. JSTOR 1888879.
^ ab"Ulysses S. Grant: Proclamation 208—Suspension of Prosecution for Violations of the Office-Holding Prohibition in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution". presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
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