4th. Those who had been engaged in destroying the commerce of the United States on the high seas, or upon the lakes and rivers separating the British Provinces from the United States, or in making raids from Canada into the United States;
5th. Those who were, or had been, absent from the United States, or had left their homes within the jurisdiction of the United States, and passed beyond the military lines of the United States into the pretended Confederate States, for the purpose of aiding the rebellion;
6th. Those who, at the time they might seek to obtain the benefits of the proclamation by taking the oath, were prisoners of war, or under civil or criminal arrest, and those who had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States since December 8, 1863, and had failed to keep it;
And, finally, those who had voluntarily participated in any way in the rebellion and were the owners of taxable property to the value of more than twenty thousand dollars.
These exceptions would have shut out almost all of the leading men of most of the "States" that passed secession ordinances from the benefits
The effect
of these
exceptions.
Briefly, the President proposed to pardon the rebel leaders, upon special personal application, as an act of high executive grace, and to
The President's plan
in a sentence.