By the thirteenth section of the Confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, the President was authorized, at any time, by proclamation, "to extend to any persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any state or part thereof, pardon and amnesty." Under a suspension of the rules, the House of Representatives, by a vote of one hundred and twelve to twenty-nine, repealed this section on the first day of the session (December 3, 1866).

There was anxiety on the part of many, under the lead of Mr.
Chandler of Michigan, to repeal it so promptly in the Senate, but it was referred to the Judiciary Committee and passed after discussion.
Mr.Chandler said, "It is a notorious fact, as notorious as the records of a court, that pardons have been for sale around this town, for sale by women--by more than one woman.

The records of your court in the District of Columbia show this.

Any senator who desires this disgraceful business to go on, of course desired that this clause shall remain." The repeal of the clause, however, would not take from the President his constitutional power of pardoning, but in the judgment of Mr.
Trumbull, who had charge of the bill in the Senate, it took from him the power to pardon by proclamation and confined him to his right of issuing individual pardons.

The difference between pardon and amnesty was defined by Mr.Trumbull.