Pardons for ex-Confederates

The Presidential pardon given to ex-Confederates was a special power exercised by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

Quotes

• The Sherman order gave rise to all sorts of difficulties. The Negroes were given only possessory titles. Then the owners came back and immediately there was trouble. The Negroes protested, “What is the use of giving us freedom if we can’t stay where we were raised and own our own house where we were born and our own piece of ground?” It was on May 25, 1865, that Johnson in his Proclamation of Pardon had provided easy means whereby all property could be restored, except the land at Port Royal, which had been sold for taxes. General Howard came to Charleston to make arrangements, and the story is characteristic—“At first,” said a witness, “the people hesitated, but soon as the meaning struck them that they must give up their little homes and gardens and work for others, there was a general murmuring of dissatisfaction.”
  • W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935), p. 602

• President Johnson, forgetting his own pre-war declaration that the “great plantations must be seized, and divided into small farms,” declared that this land must be restored to its original owners and this would be done if owners received a presidential pardon. The pardoning power was pushed and the land all over the South rapidly restored. Negroes were dispossessed.
  • W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935), p. 603

See also

• American Civil War