SECTION III.—DISABILITIES of REBELS.
No person shall be a senator or representative in congress, or elector of president or vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.[1] But congress may, by a two-thirds vote of each house, remove such disability.[2]
[1] The primary purpose of this provision was to exclude from public office those who in the Civil War, by entering the service of the Confederate States, broke an oath previously taken. Though the persons whom it was immediately intended to affect will soon all be "with the silent majority," the provision, by being made part of the constitution, will remain a warning to all in the future.
[2] The disabilities have been removed from all but a few of those immediately referred to. This clause seems to put another limitation upon the power of the president to grant pardons. From 1862 to 1867 the president had been specially authorized by congress to grant amnesty to political offenders. And in 1867 President Johnson continued to grant such amnesty, denying the power of congress to put any limitation upon the president's pardoning power. But this provision specifically places the power to relieve certain disabilities in the hands of congress. The "two-thirds" vote is required in order that such disabilities may not be easily removed.