{"id":161,"date":"2019-03-07T04:38:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T04:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:29:28","slug":"a-pardon-for-nixon-wasn-t-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/a-pardon-for-nixon-wasn-t-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"A pardon for Nixon wasn\u2019t enough"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Gerald Ford created a national controversy when he pardoned Richard Nixon in August 1974. That, however, didn\u2019t stop him from signing another controversial pardon a year later.<\/p>

He granted this one to someone who had made application for a pardon 110 years earlier but never received it.<\/p>

After the Civil War ended, any Confederate soldier could apply for a pardon and have his citizenship restored.<\/p>

One Southern officer decided to do just that.<\/p>

Before the pardon could be granted, however, the officer had to take an oath of allegiance to the Union. Such a move was considered to be controversial in a South that was still not reconciled to its defeat. Nevertheless, the ex-Confederate officer went ahead with it.<\/p>

The necessary oath of allegiance finally wound up on the desk of Secretary of State Seward, but instead of passing it on to the president,he inexplicably gave it to a friend as a souvenir \u2014 perhaps purposely wanting to derail the application for a pardon.<\/p>

Weeks passed into months and months into years without any action having been taken on the officer\u2019s request for a pardon. Sadly, in 1870, the old soldier died without receiving the pardon or having his citizenship restored.<\/p>

The matter was conveniently forgotten for the next hundred years. Then by some miracle, a researcher at the National Archives discovered the officer\u2019s amnesty oath among State Department records.<\/p>

The document was forwarded through the proper channels until it finally reached the president\u2019s desk. In 1975, the ex-Confederate officer\u2019s full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored as President Gerald Ford signed his official pardon.<\/p>

And by now you likely know it was Robert E. Lee who had sought that pardon.<\/p>

In a forgiving twist in time, he finally got his wish, and his citizenship was restored.<\/p>

At the Aug. 5, 1975, signing ceremony, President Gerald R. Ford acknowledged the discovery of Lee\u2019s Oath of Allegiance in the National Archives and remarked:<\/p>

\u201cGeneral Lee\u2019s character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.\u201d<\/p>

Now the old soldier can finally rest in peace.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Gerald Ford created a national controversy when he pardoned Richard Nixon in August 1974. That, however, didn\u2019t stop him from signing another controversial pardon a year later. He granted this one to someone who had made application for a pardon 110 years earlier but never received it. After the Civil War ended, any Confederate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,21],"tags":[32,39,43],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-opinion","tag-culture","tag-government","tag-law"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}