St. Landry democrat., 1882-10-14
FRANK JAMES SURRENDERS!

Tired of Being Hunted Like a Wild Beast,
the Missouri Bandit Appeals for Mercy
and Gives Himself up to Governor Crit
tenden.
JEFFERSON CITY, oct 5, 1882.
After living for some four years the life OF
peaceable, and to all appearances res
pectable and law abiding citizen, Frank
James yielded 70 the persuasion OF relatives
and friends and in the hope that after all he
might not be convicted, or might be par
doned, and Il deep seated feeling that unless
he did surrender his fate would be similar to
that of jesse, wrote the following letter to
GOV. Crittendcn:
AN APPEAL FOR AMNESTY.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, october !, 1882.
Hon. r. T. Crittenden, Goperalor:
Your Excecncy, time has demonstrated
that however carefully may follow the path
OF good citizenship, and however successful L
may be in gaining the confidence and respect
of those VINO associate with me daily and
know my every act, the work OF heaplng in
fanny on the name which my children are to
bear goes steadily on and on as it began so
many years ago The greater the crime when zen
startles.the people of our Western states. the
greater the certainty that it will be attributed
to my act or instigatOn. However strange 1t
may seem that man of the reputation bear
should assume to possess either pride or
sensbility, have the hardwood to lay clam
to some degree of both. For years the one
desire or my nc;l1t IS an mas Dtcl 10 ItSitlH
the citizenship which lost in the dark days
when, in Western Missouri, every mans hand
was against his neighbours, and to have an
Opportunity to pr4se ~ my su Dnt 70
thy of it. 1t would avail me nothing at this
day to revert to the circumstances attending
my outlawry, which and thousands or otn-
ers regarded as extenuating. Those who were
where they could observe the events In that
little page of history need no re-
captulation of them from me, ana
Ithn nEISDnal KNOWLEDGE
in the premises have been 50 preJudlceo
against me by reports of my evil do1ngs that
they would naturally give no consideration
to facts OF that character. The people at
large reason, and reason. logically, tnat
where there is SO much smoke there must be
some fire; that although some OF the charges
made against me may be unjust, all are not
without foundation, and that an evasion OF
the officers of the law is not the course OF an
innocent man. bow to this logic and reply
| that the man who is making this appeal does
not do so from the standpoint OF martyr.
| He comes to you, their representative, to say
! that though his suffering has been hundred
| times greater than they have a knowledge of,
| UNNECESSARILY greater than the courts which
| he evaded would have attached to his acts, he
| recognizes that he has no right to complain
OF his lot. He comes as man who, conscious
| of an honest purpose, asks to be permitted to
| do what an earnest. law abiding citizen may
| to remove from Missouri the oulum tor which
| his name is in part responsible. He comes as
a man who, outlaw though he Is. has tor those
| innocent ones who call him husband and
!
is found in men whose lives are blameless
| before the world, and as one who Is anxious
to remove from their closet the skele-
ton which has so long been its hideous occu-
pant. If it were not for the fear of response
| bility for that which did not do rather than
| for that which did, Governor Crittenden, you
| should never have had to put price upon
my head But an excited and justly lndlg-
| naDt public is not discriminative, and when
| man is stripped OF the safeguard OF presump-
| tive innocence with which the law virtually
surrounds him, as | would be, he is put to the
| dangerous necessity of proving negative
| That fear is still with me, and, as l write, 1t
| prompts me to abandon my present purpose
and having for nearly twenty years proved
my ability to evade all attempts to capture me,
to take my little family and go to some remote
section where can live quiet life, free from
apprehension. That refuse to obey such an
impulse; that prefer to go back to my boy
hoods home and face my disgrace in order
to live it down; that am willing to place
myself under surveillance to which no man in
| Missouri has ever yet been subjected, as must
naturally be the case should return; that l
c orer t ia rug MINNIE I" snhmit proof
that am not as bad as I have
been pointed out, and that the ele-
liberated from my nature. Right terribly,
Governor Crittenden, have the ofenses
against society which have been charged
against the james family been revenged.
God knows enough blood has been spilled
enough hearts broken, enough lives blighted.
God knows that if it is the purpose of the law
|
awful to contemplate, that purpose has been
served in a large degree in those ten years OF
terror and tragedy. Is its demand for ven
geance Unsuitable! Is Justice tempered with
mercy" a mere poetical nothing? Must the
great State of Missouri indulge spirit OF re.
venge until it has secured the last ounce OF
flesh? Or LAYING all considerations OF mercy
aside, can not your State-1 would to God
could say my Stakeholder afford. now that il
has vindicated its laws as no State ever DID
before, to say to its supplicant5. Yes, come
| in q
powerful instrument Of good and order. we
will, purely as an unsentimental investment
restore you to citizenship and give you an
opportunity to prove your Gontrition and
, further purposes. We will call upon
you to use your experience and knowl
edge of wrong doing in the enforce
ment of the laws which you have in the past
been charged with violating, and when by
years of correct department. ana honest IN
dustry you have won the confidence of all o.
, those who now condemn you, we will point tt
it all as a proof of our wisdom Ii l were
, certain that would not be made scrape
, goat, would never have troubled you will
this petition but would have long ago facet
your courts and met your charges, but once
! in the tolls would have had to accept all the
chances, and while none would nave Dee zen IN IN
:, terested in proving my innocence OF what
= ever might be alleged, many might ma IL Il
! their advantage to assist in convicting me
y Put yourself in my place tor one moment mi,
" and then Judge of my course in keeping GU
: | of the laws clutches. There Is one consldera
ton other than already mentioned which ha
y weighed heavily III favor OF my tdkiLS III.
/ present step. For five months have beer
D in constant dread that some rash friend o
mine or Jesse's, or some silly person seekin!
e notoriety, might carry out the threats OF as
o sassination which have been, according t.
published reports, poured in upon you. sup
! | pose for one moment that tina
had occurred, is there a man living VIII
= | would not have held me responsible for it
{ And yet, not only were the threats not mine
d as you will discover by comparing them Wit
n my writing but the thought of revenge wa
u never one moment entertained by me. hay
e now stated my case, and have, trust, avoid
O ed any SAVIOR of mawkishness. ask II you ca
not consistently with your duty give me SOM
:. hope for amnesty under the condition I hav
:, specified. 1t may strike You that modesty
J. not the most prominent characteristic OF th1
request, but it should be remembered that
comes from man who is still at large an