More on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment

I'm pleased to say that I've found many more interesting items about Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. To wit:

1. Congress started waiving the disability imposed by Section Three before the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. In June 1868, private acts were passed by the required 2/3 vote exempting various individuals (including a Congressman-elect from Tennessee). How could Congress exercise that power before the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in July 1868? Good question.

2.  Section Three became a major political issue in 1871 and 1872. Republican critics of President Grant (the so-called "Liberal Republicans") asserted in their party platform that amnesty should be given to all ex-Confederates in the name of sectional reconciliation. This partly explains why Grant asked Congress to grant a partial amnesty in 1871 and Congress then followed through in 1872.

3. Another rationale for amnesty was that it was a carrot to induce some ex-    Confederate leaders to oppose the Ku Klux Klan. President Grant took strong actions against the Klan in 1871 (aided by Congress) including a suspension of habeas corpus in parts of the South. Amnesty was supposed to aid in the Klan's suppression, or at least get more buy-in from white southern elites.

4. Even after the partial amnesty was granted by Congress, some ex-Confederates were still ineligible for office under Section Three. In 1885, the Attorney General gave a remarkable opinion construing Section Three narrowly and cited Slaughter-House (of course) in support of that narrow reading. This opinion deserves a whole separate post.