or the welfare of freedmen. The regulations were suspended after one month and the army placed back in charge, and subsequent legislation and actions only clouded the issue further. While Congressional action toward former slaves was fuzzy, its action toward Confederates was clearer. Congress had earlier adopted Treason and Conspiracies legislation, and to enforce these acts effectively, Congress required that jurors serving on Federal court juries take a loyalty oath. A stricter oath had been adopted by the second year of the war and applied to all Federal officials and employees. This was called the ironclad test oath, and it raised problems in administering Federal policies in the former Confederate states. By law, tax assessors, customs officials, and other appointed officers had to be chosen from residents of the local district concerned, but this made it difficult to find persons who could qualify under the ironclad test oath. The matter was complicated further by the ability of Lincoln, using his pardoning power, to authorize military commanders to grant pardon to those who took an oath of future loyalty. This raised numerous issues about pardoning people who had committed no crime, just as Congress was punishing people who were not accused of committing any crime.
President Johnson's plan for Reconstruction can be seen from the two proclamations he issued May 29, 1865. The first followed the wartime policy of Lincoln of offering amnesty to Southerners who would swear allegiance to the government and the Constitution of the United States. Only a small number of political and economic leaders were denied such amnesty, and they would have to ask President Johnson directly for a pardon. The second proclamation embodied the process by which North Carolina could reestablish its government, a
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