The Clemency of Abraham Lincoln, Days After Gettysburg

Keary became a Reconstruction figure in Mississippi, known for being allied with, as a newspaper said, “the negroes”

Lincoln’s clemency is central to his legacy. His stern leadership combined with a soft heart makes him more human and resolute at the same time. During Lincoln’s presidency, under his clemency powers, he pardoned 324 persons for crimes for which they had been convicted by civil courts, and gave others remission of fines. The standards of kindness and mercy that he used were no different than those for convictions in military courts. Attorney General Edward Bates’ pardon clerk later wrote of Bates that he discovered “his most important duty was to keep all but the most deserving cases from coming before the kind Mr. Lincoln at all; since there was nothing harder for him to do than to put aside a prisoner’s application and he could not resist it when it was urged by a pleading wife and a weeping child.”

During the Civil War era, Martin Keary was a benefactor to those in need. When the Sisters of Mercy, a teaching order, lost their property in Vicksburg and had no funds to reclaim it, it was returned to them by Secretary of War Stanton and the land paid for by Keary. As the war ended, Keary was on a reception committee to welcome Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops in St. Louis. After the war, Keary was a Reconstruction figure in Mississippi, serving as collector of revenue, and running for office, at which time he was derided by the local newspapers as being allied with “the negroes.”

When defendants cannot make bail, they can still be released if another person stands as a surety or financial guarantor for the attendance of the defendant at court. If the defendant then fails to appear, the surety owes the money guaranteed. The court can order that some or all of the sum of the surety be forfeited, that sum being known as a forfeited recognizance. Keary was just such a surety, likely doing so because of a sense of justice, but his defendant jumped bail and failed to appear in court. Keary was fined. Keary apparently had friends in high places, and someone, possibly Stanton, spoke up for him to President Lincoln, who issued a warrant to prevent Keary from being charged.

This is that warrant. Document signed, Washington, July 25, 1863. “I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the seal of the United States to a Warrant for the remission of the forfeited recognizance of Martin Keary dated this day, and signed by me and for so doing this shall be his warrant.”