Letter from Alexander M. Clayton to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; June 22, 1865

Documents
Letter from Alexander M. Clayton to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; June 22, 1865

Document Network
Document Metadata

Each transcribed document contains links that connect it to other documents on the same topic in the collection.

People

Clayton, Alexander M.Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 Sharkey, William Lewis, 1798-1873

Events

Conventions Conventions--Southern Convention (1850 : Nashville, Tenn.)Crime Crime--Arson Crime--Destruction of property Criminal Procedure--Amnesty Criminal Procedure--Pardon Legislation. United States. Congress. General Amnesty Act (1865)Secession. American Civil War Slave trade--United States

Organizations

Plantations United States--Congress

Occupations

United States. President

Places

Mississippi--Marshall County New York New York--Erie County. Buffalo Tennessee--Davidson County. Nashville

Page 1

Marshall Co. June 22 1865.

His Excellency W. L. Sharkey.

D^r Sir.

I am an applicant for pardon, under the Amnesty Proclamation of President Johnson. I am seated to solicit your aid in the matter. Your position and your relations with his Excellency, give an influence to your suggestions, of which I should be very happy to avail myself. You know my opinions, my position, my feelings in regard to the southern movement, since 1850. I have never been extreme, never violent, never proscriptive. I regarded slavery as the greatest material interest of the world, & was desi-rous to save it. You will remember the address to the people of the whole United States, drawn by me at the Nashville Convention, at your instance. It found us favor with that body. That address reflected my opinions at the time, and up to the time of the final rupture. I never did desire dis-union, if it was possible to preserve our institution in any other way. I believed the North wanted to get rid of the idea of their responsibility for slavery, and would consent to a peaceful separation, rather than go to war about it. In the summer of 1860, I made a speech at Buffaloe N. Y., which was extensively circulated at the time, in which I earnestly prayed for the continuance of the Union, and for

Page 2

the let alone policy towards the South. The tide then rising ~~swept~~ swept away all obstacles, the rest is history.

I sincerely desire pardon for the past, am ready and willing to take the required oath in all fidelity, and to observe it with the utmost good faith.

I hope to be permitted to pass my few remaining days in peace and repose.

Connected with the pardon of my person, I very much wish exemption from the Confiscation Law. My losses from the war have been immense. My house has been burned, my plantation devastated, & my personal property nearly all destroyed. Old age has laid its hand upon me, "I am unable to dig, and to beg ashamed". Whatever my errors or my sins may have been, they have been deeply and fearfully expiated.

If you can find any thing in the associations of past years, to induce you to lend your aid to my application, you will render me a lasting and not to be forgotten service.

Page 3

Marshal June 22^d/64

A. M. Clayton

Asking for Pardon under the Amnesty Proclamation