Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1882-10-13
FRANK JAMES sURReNDERs. .

TircdOf Being Hunted Like n Wild Beast
the Missouri Bandit Appeals for Mercy
and Gives Himself up to Governor Crit.
tenden.
JEFFERSON CIrY, Oct. ), lSS..
, After living for some four years the life oi
n peaccable, and to all appearances n res
pcctable and law-abiding citizen, Frank
james yielded to the persuasion of relatives
ana friends, and in tho hope that after all he
might not bo 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. Crittendcn:
AN APrEAL FOR AMNESTY.
ST. LOUIS Mo-, October l, 1882.
Hon. T. T. Crittenden, Governor:
Your Excellcncy, tiIne has demonstrated
that however carefully may follow the path
of good citizenship, and however successful
may he i'll gaining the confidence and respect
of those who associate with me daily and
know my every act, the work of heaping in
fanny on the name which my childien are to
bear goes steadily on and on as 1t began so
many years ago. The greater tile crime which
greater the certainty that it will be attributed
to my act or instigatiOn. However strange it
may seem that a man of the reputation bear
should assume TO possess either pride or
sensiblity, have the hardihood to lazy 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
to Sy my Dns TO
thy of II. 1t would avail me nothing ut this
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 no re:
capitula,ion Of them from me, and
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 ut
large reason, and reason logically, that
| 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 IA martyr.
| He comes to you, their representative, TO say
| that though his suffering has been a hundred
| times greater than they have Il knowledge of,
| immeasurably greater than the courts which
| he evadcd would have attached to his acts. he
recognizes that he has no right to complain
| OF his lot. He comes as Il man who, conscious
| of an honest purpose, asks to be permitted to
| do what an earnest, law abiding citizen may
to remove from Missouri tho Odinm for which
| his name is i'll part responsible. He comes rs
| u man who. outlaw though.lle is. has for those
| innocent ones who call him husband and
father, n love us strong. devoted and deep rs
| Is found in men whose lives are blameless
| before the world. and rs one who Is anxious
| to remove from their. closet the skele.
| tion which has SO long been its hideous occu-
| pant. 1t it were not for the fear of reSpOnSi-
| 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 indig-
nant public is not dscrminative, and when u
| man is stripped of the safeguard of pre5ump-
| tive innocence, with which the law virtually
| surrounds him. as would be, he is put to the
| dangerous necessity of proving n negative.
That feur is still with me, and, rs l write, it
| prompts me to abandon my present purpose,
ant and having for nearly twenty years proved
| to take my little family and go to some remote
| section where can live n 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 III
Missouri has ever yet been subjected, as must
naturally be the case should return; that
choose this rough course when smoother ones
thnt G''sr is na. humbly submit sub proof
been pointed out. and that the ele-
liberated from my nature. Right terribly.
Governor Crittenden,, have the offenses
against society which have been charged |
against the James family been revenged. |
God knows enough blood has been spilled,
God knows that if it is the purpose OF the law
to prevent crime by making its punishment
awful to contemplate, that purpose has been |
served in large degree in those ten years of |
terror and tragedy. Is its demand for ven |
gcance Unsuitable! Is Justice tempered with |
mercy" a mere poetical nothing? Must the |
venge until it has secured the last ounce of |
flesh! Or, laying all considerations OF mercy |
aside can not your State-l would to God |
could say my Stakeholder afford, now that it |
has sindicatcd its laws US no State ever did |
before. to say to its supplicants. =" Yes, come
in. We viii convert your very notoriety into
apoweriul instrument of goou and order We
will, purely rs an unsenti,nental Investment,
restore you to citizenship and give you an
opportnnity pp to prove Your Gontrition and
you to use your experience and knowl-
edge OF wrong doing in the enforce
mcnt of the laws which you have in the past
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
it all as proof of our wisdom" II l were
certain that would not be made 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 lind 1t to
their advantage to assist in cOnvictng me.
Put you,se in my place for one moment,
and then Judge of my course in keeping out
VI .ho INV oiu'enes. iheie - ohc cohsiuera-
tlon 0tner tnn Already mentioned winch has
weighed neaVly III laNof OF my taking my
present step. For live months L have been
IN cohs'tnt urcau tlitt some rash Trend OF
lniiie or jesse >, OF some shy person seeking
hoiorleti, MiSht carr! OUT the threats OF as
siSsinafion which have been, according to
pnDiisheu reports, poured III upon you. sup
pose Tor one moment that that
haa occurred, is tnere man living who
would not have held me responsible for it.
Ana yet, NOT ohiy We're the threats not mine,
us youwlli discover Dy comparing them with
NV. my Mil,,n, ou. ,,ie ,,ious, oi revenge was
never one moment entertained by me. have
now stateu my case, anu nave, trust, avoid
eda any saVoroi mawklShness ask II you can