Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1867-04-30
Pardon Of JaFarnon Daria.


The Rev. Mr.. Basley, formerly amiission-
airy to japan and India, is said to have paid a
visit few days agoto Dir. Jefferson Davis,
at Fortress Monroe, for the purpose of indus
cling him to ask the President for a pardon.
The letter stating this fact, adds:
Nfr Bagiey believed that If a resg;iiar appli-
cation should be made by BIr. Davis, lie could
support 1t with a petition presenting such an
array of influential names. large proportion
of them from the Radical Republican party.
that the movement would be as successful as
that made by him In the case of Governor
Vance; of North Carolina Mr.. Davis, how
ever, declined accepting the proposition. He
said to ask for pardon was a confession of
guilt, and that such an application would pre-
judge his case at the trial, which he was
given to understand was close at hand.
Mr.. Bagley, nothing daunted with the i'll
success he met with at Fortress Monroe, went
to Washington aud called on the President
to ascertain whethera pardon would be grant,
ed to Jefferson Davis without an application,
If petitions were presented of satisfactory
character 1t is understood that Mr.. Bagley
was equally unsuccessful at the White House.
In the exercise of the pardoning power, the
President has been guided by an infexible
rule-never to grant pardon on petitions,
unless such petitions were accompanied by
an application from the individual seeking
the executive elemency. The Attorney Gem
erals Office has now on file huge budget of
petitions, signed by hundreds of people,
North and South, praying for the release and
pardon of Jefferson Davis, all of which are Of
no avail, owing to the before mentioned rule,
---<--
Radical Prescription of Working Men.
A thousand men are walking the streets of
Portland, Conn, asking for employment who
were discharged by Radical employers for
daring to vote the Democratic ticket at the
late election in thai. State. The Hartford
Times thus speaks of the effort made by the
/ Radicalparty to control the working men, and
its effects:
In Portland the most shameful coercion of
working men has for years been practised by
the Republican employers. Men we're tod
by open proclamation that they would lose
their situations if they dared to vote the De-
mocratic ticket That shameful course gave
| the town last year to the Radicals, but thew
met some difficulty in repeating the pro-
gramme this year, for the working men or
garized Protective League, and announced
their purpose to vote. Most of them did
vote; and they carried the town, gaining 60
| or 20 votes.
For this assertion of their rights as free
men, the quarrymen were notified by the
quarry owners that their services will not be
required for the year to come.
But this prescription proved too bad dose
even for the RcpuJlicdn working men on
whom the quarry owEers relied to continue
/ work. These men, on learning of the.shame
full treatment to which their fellow workmen
had been subjected, acted like men. They
threw down their picks and drills, and told
the owners that they would no longer work.
We have chronicled the fact that the Re-
publican managers of the factories in Rock
vile have discharged fifty of their employees
because they voted the Democratic ticket
They put it on the ground that they were
members of the Rockville Workingmcn's
Leauge; and say they will turn away every
! operative in the various mills who belong to
that league. They have at the same time
added an hour.a day to the hours of labor
making twelve hours and cnt down their
wages ten per cent. This infamous proscrip.
ton of men who differ with them in politics.
shows how insincere the Republicans were in
claiming, before the election, to be the friends
and champions of the working men. 1t does
not cow down the working men SO much as
those New England slave-drivers expected it
] would; for the names of fifty new members
were enrolled on the League the very night
following the day of this prescriptions Many
OF the discharged men have dependent fa1ni-
| lies and need assistance.
|