_To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting_:
Whereas on the 10th day of January, 1863, Fitz John Porter, then
major-general of volunteers in the military service of the United
States, and also colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment of Infantry and
brevet brigadier-general in the United States Army, was by a general
court-martial, for certain offenses of which he had been thereby
convicted, sentenced "to be cashiered and to be forever disqualified
from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the
United States;" and
Whereas on the 21st day of January 1863, that sentence was duly
confirmed by the President of the United States, and by his order of the
same date carried into execution; and
Whereas so much of that sentence as forever disqualified the said Fitz
John Porter from holding office imposed upon him a continuing penalty
and is still being executed; and
Whereas doubts have since arisen concerning the guilt of the said Fitz
John Porter of the offenses whereof he was convicted by the said
court-martial, founded upon the result of an investigation ordered on
the 12th day of April, 1878, by the President of the United States,
which are deemed by me to be of sufficient gravity to warrant the
remission of that part of said sentence which has not yet been
completely executed:
Now, therefore, know ye that I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the
United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution
of the United States and in consideration of the premises, do hereby
grant to the said Fitz John Porter full remission of the
hereinbeforementioned continuing penalty.
In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 4th day of May, A.D. 1882, and
of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and sixth.
[SEAL.]