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Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8.5 x 11, August 1, 1867. President Johnson authorizes and directs the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to "a Warrant (form 2) for the pardon of E. Farrand." Signed at the conclusion in ink by President Andrew Johnson. In very good to fine condition, with scattered slight soiling and minor edge chipping.
The recipient of the pardon was likely Confederate naval officer Ebenezer Farrand, a New York-born career naval officer who resigned from the United States Navy in 1861 to join the Confederate Navy. Farrand played an important role in the Confederacy’s naval defenses during the Civil War, overseeing the fortification of Drewry’s Bluff near Richmond and later supervising ironclad construction at Selma, Alabama, including work connected to the CSS Tennessee. He ultimately commanded Confederate naval forces in Alabama during the closing stages of the war before surrendering in May 1865.
Following the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson issued thousands of pardons to former Confederates as part of his broader policy of Reconstruction and national reunification. While early proclamations in 1865 required many Southerners, particularly wealthy or politically influential individuals, to apply individually for executive clemency, Johnson frequently approved such requests, restoring civil rights and property rights (excluding formerly enslaved persons).
By 1867, amid escalating political conflict with Congress over the direction of Reconstruction, Johnson’s lenient pardon policy had become deeply controversial, with critics arguing that it enabled former Confederates to rapidly regain political influence in the South. Documents such as this presidential authorization directing the Great Seal to be affixed to the pardon of Confederate naval officer Ebenezer Farrand reflect both Johnson’s conciliatory approach toward the former Confederacy and the intensely contested political climate of the Reconstruction era.
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