The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1873-01-24
period for which my successor has been
elected will begin.

period for which my successor has been
elected will begin.
! II NE doRIAN.
II has heretofore been my sad duty TO
chronicle the departure OF distinguished
citizens from spheres Of usefulness 70
that realm Of eternal silence, from
w4lch 40 traveller returns. Among
/. en- may be enumerated three eX-Gov-
enors; and now ain called upon TO
announce the decrease Of another who
na5 occupied tie Executive chair.
William +. Johnston was born Nov.
9. $40, at GTeeusburg, WestmoreIand
county, and died at Pittsburg. Oct. ..
I ls72, IL the sixty-fOurth year of his
age.
. He was admitted TO the bar in 1929.
and was subsequently member of the
House Of Representatives, and of the
Senate. As speaker of the latter, he be-
came acting Governor upon the resig-
nation Of Francis 4. Skunk. lie WAS
t~ANN' ffAA 10 43'4AA444GAAFi IL LA4- " l-4SS
and elected 10 the Chief MagistTacy.
lie filed the office with honor and
marked ability. After the expiration
Of his term he devoted his time to the
+ construction and management of rail
roads and tie development Of the re-
/ cources of the western portion OF the
state. He WAS endowed with strong
natural abilities, was genial in manners
and faithful in friendship. His ser
vices TO the Commonwealth will not
soon he forgotten. ! trust the Legisla-
ture viii DO justice to his memory by
appropriately noticing his death.
( l is with profound sorrow. also. that
announce to You, officially, the death
Of Major General George Gordon Meade.
He died in Philadelphia, November s,
1872, in the fifty-Sixth year of lis age.
II is impossible, within the brief space
allowed, TO give IN extended notice Of
! the services Of one so cminently distin-
guished. lie was graduate Of the
Military Academy at West Point and
served with distinction in the Seminole
and Mexican wars, and as a Topographic
cal Engineer in time OF peace. At the
commencement of the recent Civil war.
uis services We're rendered to and ac-
cepted by the Government. From the
rank Of Brigadicr General he rose
through the grades Of Division and
Corps Commander. and Was on the
tweuty-eighth day of June, 1863, with
out solicitation, appointed, by President
Lincoln, Command r-n-Chief of the
Army Of the Potomac; and although
he ltaves behind bin an undying record
Of his brilliant and heroic deeds wher-
ever lie was called into action. his name
VII be, particularly and forever, asso
. ciated with the glory Of the great turn
ing battle Of the war-fought at Gettys-
burg. on the first. second and third days
Of July, 1863.
General Meade remained in the regu-
lar army until the time of his death.
He was an accomplished gentleman,
possessing highly cultivated intellect,
( souEd judgment, ard great integrity of
tCuaractcr. But it is to his distinguished
( services upon the soil Of Pennsylvania.
which has 50 intimately identified his
memory with the defence Of the nation,
in the hour Of its EXTREMIST peril, that
| invoke youT special attention. Penn
sylvania cannot, lctU not he ungrateful
for such services. She will desire, with
appropriate hOnorS, to perpctuate the
fame Of Eer del arted chieftain. ! re-
commend an appropriation for the erec-
tion Of a monument TO his memory upon
the battlefield of Gettysburg and such
other legislation as will b. alike suitable
to the occasion and honorable TO the
Commonwealth.
PARDONs, CONSULTATIONS AND EXE-
CUTIONB.
No department of the State govern
ment has imposed upon itsuch difficult
and embarrassing duties, or such weigh
~ and disagreeabie responsibilities. as
the pardouing power deyolves upon the
Executive.
That few pardons may have been
unWOrthily granted, through the mis-
representations of relatives, neighbors,
or other interested parties, or even 10y
GGid1citS afterwards discovered to have
been designcdly false, may be frankly
conceded; and that some who, perhaps,
were more deserving have been refused,
from want of proper representations of
facts, may he equally true; still, | feel
assured that have faithfully perform
ed my duty in such cases, and have ex-
erciscd the prerogative only when the
facts and circumstances seemed to i'm
pcTativCly demand the intCTpOsitiOn of
Executive clemenCy. In this ! have
endcavOred to adopt and enforce the
views entertained by the farmers of our
Constitution, who never contemplated
an indiscriminate use of the pardoning
power, but designed it for the correc-
tion of errors and expressions; cases of
atter-discoyered evidence; inequalities
of sentences for identical offences; the
fmthermce OF justice by uncovering
crime, and other instances strongly ex-
ceptional in their character.
Soon after entering upon the duties
Of the Executive Office | deemed it i'm
porfgut that tho puhlip SbouId La mora