Sunday, May 22, 2011

Amnesty To All

President Ulysses S Grant signed the Amnesty Act on May 22nd 1872, pardoning all the former Confederate troops.

Passed by Congress, and signed by President Ulysses S Grant on May 22nd 1872 the Amnesty Act of 1872 removed the restrictions to holding government office and voting. This applied to all but about 600 of the upper military leaders of the Confederacy. These 600 or so men were still denied the right to hold government office under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which says any citizen who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” could not hold state or federal office.

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