Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/30

 12 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS sions, no pledges.&quot; And again: &quot;My past life, especially my course during the present unholy re bellion, is before you. I have no principles to re tract. I defy any one to point to any of my public acts at variance with the fixed principles which have guided me through life.&quot; It was evident that the difference in views of public policy, which were kept in abeyance dur ing the war, would now come to the surface. The surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston s army, April 26, 1865, was practically the end of the war (although August 20, 1866, was officially fixed as the close of the civil war by the second section of the act of March 2, 1867), and on April 29 Presi dent Johnson issued a proclamation for the re moval of trade restrictions in most of the insurrec tionary states, which, being in contravention of an act of congress, was subsequently modified. On May 9, 1865, he issued a proclamation restoring Virginia to the Union, and on May 22 all ports except four in Texas were opened to foreign com merce. On May 29 a general amnesty was de clared to all except fourteen specified classes of citizens. Among the number excepted were &quot;all participants in the rebellion the estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty thousand dollars.&quot; This exception was undoubtedly the re sult of personal feeling on the part of the presi dent. It began to be perceived that a change was