Amnesty Act

The Amnesty Act of May 22, 1872 was a United States federal law which reversed most of the penalties imposed on former Confederates by the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically, the Act removed voting restrictions and office-holding disqualification 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 and officers in the judicial, military, and naval service of the United States, heads of Departments, and foreign ministers of the United States."[1] The act was passed by the 42nd United States Congress and the original restrictive Act was passed by the United States Congress in May 1866.[2]

The 1872 Act affected over 150,000 former slaves Confederate troops who had taken part in the American Civil War.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=70328
  2. ↑ Rawley, James A. (December 1960). "The General Amnesty Act of 1872: A Note". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. Organization of American Historians. 47 (3): 480–484. JSTOR 1888879.


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