HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF
THE UNITED STATES,
Washington, June 20,
1865.
General R. E. LEE,
Richmond, Va.:
Your communications of date of the 13th instant, stating the
steps you had taken after reading the President's proclamation of the 29th
ultimo, with a view of complying with its provisions when you learned that,
with others, you were to be indicted for treason by the grand jury at Norfolk;
that you had supposed the officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia
were by the terms of their surrender protected by the United States Government
from molestation so long as they conformed to its conditions; that you were
ready to meet any charges that might be preferred against you, and did not wish
to avoid trial, but that if you were correct as to the protection granted by
your parole, and were not to be prosecuted, you desired to avail yourself of
the President's amnesty proclamation, and inclosing an application therefor,
with the request that in that event it be acted on, has been received and
forwarded to the Secretary of War, with the following opinion indorsed thereon
by me:
In my opinion the officers and men paroled at Appomattox
Court-House, and since, upon the same terms given to Lee, cannot be tried for
treason so long as they observe the terms of their parole. This is my
understanding. Good faith, as well as true policy, dictates that we should
observe the conditions of that convention. Bad faith on the part of the
Government, or a construction of that convention subjecting the officers to trial
for treason, would produce a feeling of insecurity in the minds of all the
paroled officers and men. If so disposed they might even regard such an
infraction of terms by the Government as an entire release from all obligations
on their part. I will state further that the terms granted by me met with the
hearty approval of the President at the time, and of the country generally. The
action of Judge Underwood, in Norfolk, has already had an injurious effect, and
I would ask that he be ordered to quash all indictments found against paroled
prisoners of war, and to desist from the farther prosecution of them.
This opinion, I am informed, is substantially the same as
that entertained by the Government. I have forwarded your application for
amnesty and pardon to the President, with the following indorsement thereon:
Respectfully forwarded through the Secretary of War to the
President, with the earnest recommendation that this application of General R. E. Lee for amnesty and pardon may be granted him. The oath of allegiance
required by recent order of the President to accompany applications does not
accompany this for the reason, as I am informed by General Ord, the order
requiring it had not reached Richmond when this was forwarded.
U. S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 1286-7
