The Library of Congress created a crowdsource project (here) for transcribing archival material in their collections. This looked like fun, so I created an account. If nothing else, I thought my expertise as an historian might prove beneficial. In the mid-1990s I had done some similar work transcribing Civil War muster rolls in the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Historical Society. Now in 2019 I am transcribing letters sent to Abraham Lincoln concerning his 1864 re-election campaign.
One of the items I transcribed yesterday was telegram dated January 19, 1864 from San Francisco, California and addressed to Attorney General Edward Bates. "Application about to be made to discharge Chapman," it started. However, I could not read the word after Chapman. I assumed it was a name. So, I conducted some searches and concluded that the word following Chapman was indeed "prisoners." What was all this about and why was US Attorney William Sharp telling the attorney general about this? Sharp wanted to tip the administration off to the fact that the Chapman prisoners were going to apply for relief under Lincoln's amnesty proclamation. They were prepared to take an oath of loyalty in exchange for amnesty.
Who were the Chapman prisoners? In 1863 a group of Confederate sympathizers attempted to seize a ship in San Francisco harbor with the idea of converting it into a commerce raider. The US marshal foiled the plot and ultimately three men were convicted for violating the Confiscation Act of 1862. Lincoln pardoned one of the pirates on condition that he leave the country. The two remaining prisoners were not the only ones who wondered how widely the amnesty proclamation could be applied. Could it be applied, for example, to those who had been charged or convicted of a crime? Did it apply to copperheads in the north or others who were non-combatant sympathizers? After sitting on Sharp's telegram for a month, Lincoln issued a circular to the US attorneys affirming that the amnesty proclamation could be applied to those on trial or who had been convicted of crimes of rebellion. This established an important precedent for Reconstruction policies because it essentially negated the Confiscation Act. Anyone convicted under the act could apply for amnesty in exchange for an oath of allegiance. Andrew Johnson freely granted amnesty, paving the way for former Confederates to return to government positions after the war.
I gave a few minutes of my time in this crowdsourcing venture, but I think I received much more in return in how it expanded my knowledge of the American Civil War.
If you want to know more about this, see Robert J. Chandler. "The Release of the Chapman Pirates: A California Sidelight on Lincoln's Amnesty Policy." Civil War History 23 (June 1977): 129-43.
