President Johnson has published an amnesty to the Southern people,
restoring them to the full rights of property except in slaves, on condition of their taking an oath of fidelity to "the Union, the Constitution, and all emancipation laws and proclama- tions,"—but he exempts from the amnesty, rebel civil officers, military officers above the rank of colonel, naval officers above the rank of lieutenant, governors of States, rebels with over 20,000 dols. (4,0000 in property, pirates, and border raiders. The former exceptions are made, we take it, not with the intention of bringing general officers or rich private persons to trial or punish- ment, but to retain the power to control them if they should try to reconstruct the State on a pro-slavery or rebellious basis. If it means that the President intends to punish these .excepted classes, he is committing a great mistake, if not a political crime.
