Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-03-21
Ketehuln, the FOrger-PetitiOn for
- his Pardon.

KetehuIn, the FOrger-PetitiOn for
his Pardon.
Readers will not readily forget the facts con-
ue,ted with the crime, confession and punish
nent of Edward B. Ketchum, who startled
New York with his great forgeries. Oflate, a
large number of letters have been forwarded
to the Governor, petitioning for his pardon
From these are gathered facts which prove the
misdceds Of the offender among tho most re-
markable occurrences in the history of crime.
At the time of the perpetration of the offence
he was only twenty four years old, and from
the early age of twenty-one he had been a
partner in the banking house Of Ketchum, Son
& Co., one of the wealthiest and most extern
siye in the United States. Latterly, owing to
the partial retirement Of his father, the respon-
sibility of the vast business Of the firm had fall
led chiefly upon him. The united testimony
OF men most distinguished in that branch OF
business shows that he was fully believed to
have meritcd this confidence both from busi-
ness ability and personal character So far
from being idle, dissipated or avaricious, the
united testimony OF many OF the best men IN
the community bears EVIDENCE that he was ex-
tremey Industrious, Of modest and retiring
expenditures. Says the Rev. William Ad
ans, pastor OF the Madison Square PGcsbyte-
rian Church:
II have been acquainted with Edward 3.
Ketchum for eight or nine years AS the pas
tor of his fathers family during that time, l
have had peculiar opportunities for knowing
his character and habits. Never was he SO
much as suspected of any act inconsistent with
purity of morals and the strictest decorum Of
life. From youth he has ever borne an un-
bemished name, as the pride of his father,
tender and we'll beloved in the sight of his
mother Marrying lovely Christian lady, he
was remarkable for his quiet, unostentatious
and domestic habits. So far from being ex-.
travagant, he was unusually simple and mod
est in his way of living"
It would naturally have been imagined that
person Of his wellknown ability, about to
embark in a series of stupendous frauds, would
have perpetrated them with consummate SKILL
and have carefully provided an avenue ofescape
in the event Of unforeseen discovery. SO tar
was this from being the case, that no schoolboy
meditating descent upon an apple orchard
could have gone about the business with more
awkwardness or less providence than nc. The
memorial of his parents says.
'srhe forgeries were committed in the most
there were hundred of the fabricated certlf-
persons doing business daily within few rods
of his office. The chances were great that
some of these certificates would be sent, within
twenty-hours, into the bank, where there were
at least three persons who would pronounce
them forgeries, if they had been ever SO we'll
executed. But they were, in fact, so badly ex-
ecuted that stranger would almost have
known them to be false Hardly any two
were alike, and scarcely one contained fair
resemblance to the genuine signature. When
at last detection came the conduct OF this errlng
youth was as extraordinary as it had been In
the commission of the offence. He lett openly
with large package Of money in his hands,
and instead Of escaping from the city went to
private boarding house, under an assumed
name, it is true, but with hardly any attempt
at disguise. From this house he went out by
day and by night: and when arrested manifes-
ted no surprise, and no emotion of any kind"
[The New York Tribune which always comes
with an air of mingled piety and sentimentality
to the rescue of any man or measure it may
happen to favor, backs up the proposition for
Ketchum's release. It quotes from the Post
which advocates his pardon on the ground that
Ketchum will never do SO any more, and says:
All this is true; yet 1t IS considerably short
Of the whole truth. Having given much atten-
tion to the case OF Mr. Ketchum, we firmly be-
lieve him essentially innocent-that he is one
Who, under temporary halucination Or phren-
zy, produced by the atmosphere of Wall street,
committed acts of which he had no proper con-
sciousness, and for which he was morally ire:
sponsible" We have heard of many atmos::
pheric phenomena in our time, but this is, we
believe, the first occasion on which heavy tor.
geres have been superinduced by the state of
the atmosphere.