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Title: Amos T. Akerman to John H. Purnell, 27 November 1871
Date: November 27, 1871
Whitman Archive ID: nar.02621
Source: National Archives and Records Administration. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, Anthony Dreesen, John Schwaninger, and Nima Najafi Kianfar
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Nov. 27, 1871.
John H. Purnell, Esq.
Opelika, Ala.
Sir:
Your letter to the President, of the 18th instant has been referred by him to this Department.
I do not see that there is the slightest necessity for a special pardon in the case of Mr. Wilson Wiliams. President Johnson's pardons by Proclamation have relieved him from all the penal consequences of participation in the rebellion, and a special pardon by President Grant can have no other effect. If he is under disabilities created by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Congress alone has power to relieve him.
Very respectfully,
A. T. Akerman,
Attorney General.
W. Williams Ala.