ad received Executive clemency. Not only had the general mass of
rebels been pardoned by the amnesty proclamation of May 29th, but
many thousands of the classes excepted in that instrument had
afterwards received special pardons from the President. The crime of
treason, which they had committed, was thus condoned, and the
Executive pardon could be pleaded against any indictment or any
attempt to punish by process of law. If there should be no provision
to the contrary, these pardoned men would thus become as eligible to
all the honors and emoluments of the Republic as though they had not
for four years been using their utmost efforts to destroy its
existence. It was therefore the general expectation of the people that
by some law, either statute or organic, the political privileges of
these men, so far as the right to hold office was involved, should be
restricted, and that, without contravening the full force and effect of
the President's pardon, they might justly be deprived of all right to
receive the honors of the Nation and of the State. From the crime of
rebellion they had been freed by the President, but it was expected
that Congress would clearly define the difference between pardoning a
rebel for treason to his county and endowing him with the right to
enjoy the honors and emoluments of office.

Other subjects had entered into the public apprehension and were
brought prominently to the attention of Congress, and by Congress
referred to the Reconstruction Committee. There was a fear that if, by
a political convulsion, the Confederates of the South should unite with
the Democratic opponents of the war in the North and thus obtain
control of the Government, they might, at least by some indirect
process if not directly, impair the public obligations of the United
States incurred in suppressing the Rebellion. They feared that the
large bounties already paid to Union soldiers, and the generous
pensions already provided or which might afterwards be provided, for
those who had been maimed or for the orphan and the widow of those who
had fallen, might, in the advent of the same adverse political power
in the Government, be objected to, unless at the same time a similar
concession should be granted to the misled and deceived masses of the
South, who had with reckless daring been forced into the service of the
ill-starred Confederacy. It was therefore expected that Congress
would, so far as organic law could attai