Here is what Davis said when the commissioners talked of amnesty—the idea that all Confederates would have to apply for it—and emancipation. He dismissed the idea of amnesty, saying that one had to commit a crime in order to require it:

And emancipation! You have already emancipated nearly two millions of our slaves—and if you will take care of them, you may emancipate the rest. I had a few [slaves] when the war began. I was of some use to them; they never were of any to me. Against their will you “emancipated” them; and you may “emancipate every negro in the Confederacy, but we will be free. We will govern ourselves. We will do it, if we have to see every Southern plantation sacked, and every Southern city in flames.”