Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1882-10-12

Amnesty-He Wants a Fair Trial and a
Chance to Reform.
JEFFERSON CITY, Oct. 8, 1881.
After living for some four years the life of
a peaceable, and to all appearances a res
pectable and aw-abiding citizen, Frank
James yielded TO the persuasion of relatives
| and friends, and in the hope that after ali he
might not be convicted, or might be par
doned, and deep seated feeling that unless
he did surrender his fate would be similar to
that of Jesse, wrote the following letter to
/ Gov. Crittenden:
AN APPEAL FOR AMNESTY.
| ST. Louis, NO., October l, 1882.
/ Hon. T. T. Cr5ttenden, Governor:
! Your EXcellency, time has demonstrated
| that however carefully may follow the path
| of good citizenship, and however successful
/ may be in gaining the confidence and respect
| of those who associate with me daily and
! know my every set, the work of heapiIlg in
/ fanny on the name which my children are to
bear goes steadily ON and on it began SO
many years ago. The greater the crime which
/ startles the people of our Western States, the
! greater the Certainty that it will be attributed
| to my act or instigatiOn. However strange it
may seem that man of the reputation bear
should assume to possess either pride or
| sensibility, 1 have the hardihood to lay claim
| to some degree of both. For years the one
| desire of my heart is and has been to regain
| 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 prove, by my submission to
| the most rigorous test, that am not unwor-
/
/ day to revert to the circumstances attending
my outlawry, which and thousands of 9TH
ers regarded as extenuating. Those who were
| where they could observe the events in that
! little page of history need 40 re-
| capitalization of them from me, and
| those who had no personal knowledge
in the premises have been so prejudiced
| against me by reports of my evil dOings that
| they would naturally give no consideration
! to facts OF that character. The people at
| large reason, and reason logically, that
| where there is so much smoke there must be
oI nT1rrI,G IF lao olNaps
| 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 90 SO from the Stanopont OF martyr
He comes to you, their representative to say
that though his suffering has been a hundred
times greater than they have a knowledge of,
he evaded would have attached to his acts, he
recognizes that he has no right to complain
of his lot. He comes 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 odium for which
his name is in part responsible He comes as
a man who, outlaw though he is, has for those
innocent ones who call him husband and
father, a love as strong, devoted and deep as
is found in men whose lives are bIameless
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. II 1T were not tor the fear OF response
bility for that which 1 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 indig-
nant 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 a negative.
That fear is still with nae, and, as write, it
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
apprehension. That refuse to obey such an
impulse; that prefer to go back to my boy
to live it down. that ] am willing Mace
myself under surveLii. -l-SS4 TO snIch no man IN
Missouri has ever yet bech subjected, as must
naturally be the case should return; that
choose this rough course when smoother ones
f 3Sr is n nImPy submits sub IT. P %s%s
been pointed out, and that the ele-
ments of manhood have not been entirely OBJ
Governor Cr1ttenden, have the offenses
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
to prevent crime by making it's punishment
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 1t has secured the last ounce of
flesh? Or, laying all considerations of mercy
aside, can not your State-I would to God
could say my Stakeholder afford, now that it
has indicated its laws as no State ever did
before, 10 say 10 SuQplcdnIS. les, come
in. We will convert your very notoriety into
powerful instrument of good and order. We
will, purely as an unsentimental investment,
opportunity to prove your contrition and
further purposes. We will call upon
you to 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 and honest in
dustry you have won the confidence of all of
those who now condemn you, we will point to
1t all as a proof of our wisdom" II l were
certain that would not be made q scrape-
goat, would never have troubled you with
this petition, but would have long ago faced
your courts and met your charges, but once
in the tolls would have had to accept all the
chances, and while none would have been in
terested in proving my innocence of what
ever might be alleged, many might ind 1t to
their advantage to assist in convicting me.
Put yourself IN my place Tor one moment,
and then judge of my course in keeping out
of the laws clutches. There is one considera-
ton other than already mentioned which has
weighed heavily in favor of my taking my
present step. For five months l have been
in constant dread that some rash friend of
mine or Jesses, or some silly person seeking
notOriety, might carry out the threats of as
sassination which have been, according to
published reports, poured in upon you. Sup
pose for one moment that that
had occurred, is there man living who
would not have held me responsible for it?
And yet, not only were the threats not mine,
you will discover by computing them with
my writing, but the thought of revenge was
never one moment entertained by me. have
now stated my case, and have, trust, avoid
ed any SAVIOR OF maWkiShneSS. l ask II you can
not consistently with Your duty give me some
hope for amnesty under the condition have
specified. 1t may strike you that modesty is
not the most prominent characteristic OF this
request, but it should be remembered that 1t
comes from man who is still at large and
the uncertainty of whose whereabouts is, al
though 1t need not be, the cause of q deal OF
apprehension. do not appeal as man who,
having followed the wrong course until his
head is whitening and he is tOttering on the
verge of the grave, is taught repentance
by his incapacity for further 1niquity, but
as one who is yet young and vigorous,
and has reasonable ground to be-
lieVe that there are more years yet left him
for active service within the pale of society
than those which he has spent outside of it.
submit that this is not an improper ques-
not be better to have Frank James hunter of
fugitives than a fugitive? whether Frank
James, humbled, repentant and reformed De
fore the world will not be example more
fTaught with good to the rising generation
than Frank James q mysterious Wanderer, or
the occupant of a felon's cell or grave? This
appeal, though anonymous and possibly with
out complete precedent, is not the result
of a sudden within, but is born of a de-
termination which has been forming for years,
and which has already stood the test of four
years of sober, industrious farm life, as viii
have no difficulty in satisfying you. am
prouder of the nerve which has enabled me
so take this step in behalf of my better nature
than any courageous act of ali my past life. l
write this letter from St Louis, and leave 1t
here to be mailed. An answer addressed in
care of my wife at Independence, Mo-, will
reach me, and need not say how fefvently
pray that it will not be the answer of a
Nemesis.
Yours, contritely and hopefully,
III