Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1.

About this Item

Title
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1.
Author
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
Publication
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press
1953.
Rights/Permissions

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"Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1." In the digital collection Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 19, 2024.

Pages

Petition for Pardon of a Person Unknown1Jump to section

September [15?] 1845

To His Excellency Thomas Ford Governor of the State of Illinois

The undersigned would respectfully represent, that at the last term of the McLean circuit court held in the month of September, AD 1845, a person to said court unknown, was indicted, plead guilty to the charge and was by said court sentenced to the Penitentiary for the term of one year for the crime of Larceny. That said person was apprehended about five month[s] previous to the sitting of said court during all which time he has been confined in the Jail for the county of McLean. That during his said confinement he has in all respects behaved and conducted himself as one worthy of a better fate. That he has at all times acknowledged the taking of the watch with which he has been charged, and upon which he has been sentenced. That he was destitute of money at the time he took the watch and we have been told that he tried repeatedly on the road to obtain employment as a labouring hand, but was not successful in getting work.

We would therefore humbly suggest that in consideration of the punishment, which he has already received, together with his conduct, destitution & youth, that in our opinions he is a fit object for executive clemency.

Page 347

We therefore petition your excellency, that he may be reprieved, and as in duty bound your Petitioners will ever pray.

Annotation

[1]   DS, I-Ar. Lincoln and John T. Stuart were among the fifty-two signers, mostly citizens of Bloomington, Illinois. The circuit court met in Bloomington, September 15-20, 1845. Although accompanied by letters from the presiding judge Samuel H. Treat and Lieutenant Governor John Moore, the petition seems not to have impressed Governor Ford.

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