The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1854-05-27
THURSDAY MORNING, MAY rs, 1854.
Pardon Of Monroe.

There is considerable feeling in town against
Gov. German and Secretary Rosser, owing to
the pardon by the Governor of Louis Monroe, a
colored man. who was convicted at the last
term of our District Court. of assault with in
tent to kill. Mr. Rosser was his counsel at the
trial, and has since labored zealously to have
his sentence lightened or a pardon granted.
On Monday last Mr.. Rosser circulated a petit
ton praying for the pardon, accompanied by
statement signed by Judge Shcrburne, and thus
procured the signatures thereto of many cti-
zens Of st. Paul. The ground upon which most
persons, so far as we can learn, signed the petit
ton, was, that the statement of Judge Sher-
burne, before whom the case was tried, assumed
that, in the Judges opinion, the evidence ad-
duced upon the trial did not 20 to show clearly
that Monroe was guilty of any greater offence
than simple assault--that the intention to
strength of this written statement by the Judge
an officer in whom general confidence is re-
posed by our citizens--the editor who pens
this article signed the petition. as did also, he
is fully persuaded a great many others, who
would not otherwise have done such an act
even to shield Gov. German himself from the
Penitentiary, had he been found guilty of
similar offence by jury Of his countrymen
The case stands simply thus: A jury found
Monroe guilty of felony, which is Peniten-
tiary offence under our laws the Judge before
whom the trial took place makes written
statement to be shown to the public, that the tcs
timony, in his opinion. only carried legal weight
to the extent of convicting the man of a INSIDE
meanor, the penalty of which is simple fine and
short Imprisonment in the county jail
Now, when question of this kind arises in
these days ofuncertain justice at the hands of
petit juries, sensible and straightforward men
are very apt to prefer and act upon the opinion
of the Judge-if they have confidence in his in
tegrity-rathcr than upon that of the jury
This principle was practically applied by those
who signed the petition to pardon Monroe-at
least it was in our case as we'll as some others
we could name. If the result has been extra
judicially brought about; if collision and
"skullduggery' have been practsed over at the
capitol between executive and judicial officers
AS is freely charged about the strcets--and
innocent and jnsticeloving citizens have been
made cat's-paws to shield Gov. German from
the odium of turning loose upon the community
a justly condemned culprit, in order to do a
personal favor for friend and brother officer,
let the whole affair be enquired into and the
facts all brought to light. We will promise,
should facts turn out differently from what we
supposed them at the time we signed the petit
ton, that the doing of that act will be regarded
asin no wise binding upon us to remain silent un-
der conviction that wrong has been done the
community. We respectfully call for the pub
LEGATION of the statement of Judge Sherburne,
which Mr.. Rosser exhibited while procuring
signatures to the petition for pardon.
The Times brought this matter before the
public yesterday morning, at which time We
had not learned of the pardon of Monroe