President Andrew Johnson issued Proclamation 179, a sweeping executive order that granted full pardon and amnesty to all individuals who had participated, directly or indirectly, in the Confederate rebellion during the American Civil War. The proclamation restored all constitutional rights, privileges, and legal protections to former Confederates without conditions or exceptions. Issued under the presidential power of clemency, the order represented the most comprehensive act of forgiveness related to the Civil War and formally closed the federal government’s use of criminal liability for treason as a postwar policy tool.
The proclamation marked the final step in a series of amnesty measures that began under President Abraham Lincoln and continued throughout Johnson’s presidency. Lincoln’s amnesty proclamations of 1863 and 1864 offered pardon to most Confederate participants but excluded specific groups and required loyalty oaths. Johnson expanded these policies after Lincoln’s assassination, issuing multiple proclamations between 1865 and 1867 that gradually reduced exclusions while still requiring individual petitions from certain classes, including high-ranking Confederate officials and wealthy planters. By contrast, the December 1868 proclamation eliminated all remaining restrictions and requirements, extending unconditional amnesty to every former participant in the rebellion.
This action occurred during the Reconstruction era, a period defined by constitutional change, political conflict, and legal restructuring following the war’s end in 1865. By late 1868, the Confederate states had been militarily subdued, and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments had been adopted, abolishing slavery and redefining citizenship and civil rights. Despite these developments, many former Confederates remained subject to legal disabilities, including potential prosecution for treason and exclusion from public office. Johnson’s proclamation sought to resolve these outstanding legal consequences through executive action.
The proclamation’s legal foundation rested on Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which grants the President authority to issue pardons for federal offenses, excluding impeachment. While the Constitution does not explicitly use the term “amnesty,” presidents had long interpreted the pardon power to include broad, class-based relief following domestic conflict. Johnson’s proclamation explicitly referenced offenses connected to treason and rebellion, framing the act as a constitutional pardon rather than a legislative amnesty. Nonetheless, the scope of the proclamation generated debate, particularly in Congress, where some lawmakers questioned whether such universal relief exceeded presidential authority.
The timing of the proclamation was notable. Issued on Christmas Day and near the end of Johnson’s presidency, it functioned as both a symbolic and administrative act. Johnson had been impeached earlier in 1868 and narrowly avoided removal from office. His Reconstruction policies, including opposition to congressional measures protecting civil rights for formerly enslaved people, had placed him in direct conflict with the Republican-controlled Congress. The proclamation thus reflected Johnson’s long-standing approach to Reconstruction, which emphasized rapid restoration of the former Confederate states and minimal federal intervention in Southern governance.
The practical effects of the proclamation were immediate and broad. Individuals previously excluded from earlier amnesties, including prominent Confederate leaders such as Jefferson Davis, were relieved of potential criminal liability for treason. While the proclamation restored general civil rights, it did not override constitutional restrictions imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which barred certain former Confederate officials from holding office unless Congress removed those disabilities. That issue would later be addressed through legislative action, most notably the Amnesty Act of 1872.
The proclamation also underscored the evolving role of executive clemency in American history. From the early republic onward, presidents had used pardons to restore civil order after episodes of internal unrest, including the Whiskey Rebellion and other insurrections. Johnson’s 1868 proclamation represented the most extensive use of that power to date, applying clemency not to individuals or groups with defined conditions, but to an entire population connected to a national rebellion.
Historically, the significance of the December 25, 1868 proclamation lies in its function as a legal endpoint to the Civil War. While political, racial, and regional conflicts persisted long after Reconstruction, the proclamation formally ended the federal government’s treatment of former Confederates as criminal rebels. It marked the transition from wartime justice to peacetime governance and closed a chapter in which treason prosecutions remained a theoretical possibility. As an assertion of presidential authority and a definitive act of reconciliation, Johnson’s proclamation occupies a central place in the legal and constitutional history of post–Civil War America.
References / More Knowledge:
American Presidency Project. Proclamation 179—Granting Full Pardon and Amnesty for the Offense of Treason Against the United States During the Late Civil War.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/203394
Library of Congress. Andrew Johnson Proclamation Granting Full Pardon and Amnesty, December 25, 1868.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2020783792/
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Report on the President’s Amnesty Proclamation (1869).
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-01362_00_00-051-0239-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-01362_00_00-051-0239-0000.pdf
National Park Service. Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction.
https://www.nps.gov/anjo/andrew-johnson-and-reconstruction.htm