President Abraham Lincoln Issues a Pardon for “Conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States”, the Only Such Document Public Sale Records Disclose

He shows his clemency by pardoning Dr. John B. Peyton, of Kentucky, who was “neutral” in the conflict, at the recommendation of loyal Kentuckians

This is just the second Lincoln pardon for war-related offenses that we have had in our decades years in the field

When the Civil War began, it was clear that the border states of Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland held the key to victory, and President Lincoln especially thought that maintaining the Union without holding Kentucky would not be feasible. Citizens of those states soon took sides, with many favoring the Confederacy, and in other places in the North there were Confederate sympathizers as well. The act of July 31, 1861, sought to deal with this by stifling treasonable activities. It made it a federal crime to engage in “conspiracies to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States or to levy war against them or to oppose by force the authority thereof or by force to prevent hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize take or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, pro-Confederate activities continued apace. While the official state government remained loyal to the Union, Confederate sympathizers organized a rival government called the Provisional Government of Kentucky, to take their state into the Confederacy. Four major government officers were installed in the offices; governor, lt. governor, treasurer and auditor. This would-be government was recognized by the Confederate government in Richmond, and Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. In the summer of 1862, Confederate troops occupied a portion of the Kentucky. In Russellville, a Committee of Safety was organized, and its members were Edward Stevenson, James McCallen, John B. Peyton, and William Clark. It saw its job as protecting citizens on both sides during the Confederate occupation, though some Unionists considered it as operating to serve the occupying Confederates.

Between July and October 1862, the prison at Camp Chase in Ohio began to receive large numbers of political detainees, eventually over 550 civilian prisoners, nearly half of whom were from Kentucky. Among these Kentucky citizens was Edward Stevenson, a Methodist minister and Russellville Committee of Safety member who was arrested on suspicion of being “a rabid, or prominent Secessionist” and chairman of a “Committee on Safety,” an organization purportedly formed for the purpose of harassing Unionists. In August 1862, Stevenson was one of 37 prisoners from Camp Chase who petitioned Kentucky governor James Robinson to intervene in what they clearly articulated as a violation of legal norms.

In addition to signing that petition, Stevenson also appealed to Governor Robinson and federal officials through personal correspondence. In a letter to Robinson dated August 18, Stevenson acknowledged that he had served as chairman of the safety committee but denied that he was a secessionist. He regarded secession as a “rash and reckless course,” of which he strongly disapproved. He did, however, admit to opposing U.S. war policy, as he did not believe the shedding of blood was the best way to preserve the Union. He justified his involvement with the safety committee, which he saw as being an agent of reason and restraint. His hope, he claimed, was “doing some good; and especially in protecting peaceable citizens, from the violence of misguided and reckless southern citizens and soldiers.” Indeed, when he offered a detailed account of the workings of that committee to Joseph Holt – who was a few weeks away from being named Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army – Stevenson claimed that when the civil authorities of his town were displaced by the Confederate invasion, the committee had been formed with the intention of protecting peaceable citizens. He also noted that Unionists had expressed gratitude to the committee for the protections it had provided.

Of the five members of the Committee on Safety who were subsequently arrested by U.S. authorities, only Edward Stevenson and one other, James McCallen, were detained and sent to Camp Chase. When Union General J.T. Boyle was consulted about their applications for release, he recommended that McCallen be discharged on condition of taking a loyalty oath and executing bond. Without offering to expound on his claims, Boyle advised that Stevenson be detained, as he had “exerted all of his influence against the Government and has been a most pestilent disciminator of treason.”

Russellville residents M. B. Morton and Dr. John B. Peyton corroborated Stevenson’s account of the Committee on Safety. In a letter signed by both men, they affirmed that “a vast amount of mischief and trouble was prevented by the labors of that committee.” Stevenson, they attested, “labored with unremitting efforts and with all his influence to those ends.” In its first iteration, Peyton had served on the Military Board of Kentucky, an organization created primarily to prevent then-governor Beriah Magoffin from using the state’s military resources to support the Confederacy. Peyton had also been one of the five members of the safety committee initially arrested by Union authorities along with Stevenson. Their legal fates would continue to be entwined.

On October 7, Reuben Hitchcock, the special commissioner appointed to examine the cases of civilian prisoners, issued his recommendation in Stevenson’s case. Hitchcock judged Stevenson to be “a man of considerable influence, of peaceble & quiet disposition, Southern Rights in his political Sentiments, but disposed to submit to and follow the actions of his State.” Hitchcock determined that Stevenson and most of the other members of the Russellville Home Committee of Safety had “labored fruitfully to prevent violence and outrage upon the person or property of either Union or Secession men.” Hitchcock recommended that Stevenson be released on condition of taking an oath of allegiance to the United Sates and giving $3,000 bond as “security for his good behavior.”

Nevertheless, Stevenson and fellow safety committee member Peyton were indicted by a federal grand jury for seeking to overthrow the government of the United States. Stevenson and Peyton petitioned for presidential pardons. Henry Grider was a loyal Kentuckian who represented his state in Congress throughout the Civil War. In time he would serve on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction which drafted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Peyton was a longtime acquaintance of Congressman Grider, who supported his petition, as did John B. Temple, a former president of the Military Board who was de facto Commander-in-chief of Kentucky and actively working against Confederate interests in that state, Judge William Loving, a slaveholding Unionist well known for opposing the rebellion, and George D. Blakey, a Kentucky Republican leader. As Loving wrote Grider, Peyton’s indictment had resulted in “intense mortification”, adding “I am satisfied he has done nothing in aid of this accursed rebellion. His surroundings alone had made him neutral…” The support of such men proved to be a factor that Lincoln took into account.

How would President Lincoln respond to pleas from Unionists for a man (Peyton) they themselves admitted was neutral, and to another (Stevenson) who admitted readily that he opposed the war? The legend of the compassionate Lincoln comes to life here, as rather than see the men in prison, he gave them both pardons.

This is Peyton’s pardon. Document signed, as president, two pages on both sides of a sheet of paper, Washington, December 22, 1863. “Whereas one J.B. Peyton of Logan County, Kentucky, is now under indictment in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky for Conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States; And whereas I am assured that the charge against the said J.B. Peyton is frivolous and untrue, and the expense of defending himself against it will be a great and unjust burden; And whereas the said J.B. Peyton has taken the oath of allegiance and executed a bond with security for his future good behavior, and Hon. Henry Grider and other loyal citizens of Kentucky have earnestly requested his pardon; Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby grant a full and free pardon to the said J.B. Peyton for the offense charged in the said indictment.” The document is countersigned by Frederick Seward, Assistant Secretary of State, and Acting Secretary of State at this time in the absence of his father, William Seward. This document has been in a family collection for many decades before we obtained it. As for Edward Stevenson, he was pardoned on January 14, 1864.

According to the study “Inside Lincoln’s Clemency Decision Making,” Lincoln issued 324 pardons as President, with only 64 of them war related. These 64 break down as follows: conspiracy (22), treason (17), rebellion (12), holding an office in the Confederacy (9), and serving with the rebels (4). Thus, this is one of only 22 pardons Lincoln issued for conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.

This is just the second Lincoln pardon for war-related offenses that we have ever had in our 33 years in the field, and the only pardon relating to conspiracy we have ever seen.