The Portland daily press., 1883-12-25
RUFUS HI. WAITE
The Grounds on which EEis Pardon is
Asked of she Governor and Council.


Asked of she Governor and Council.
AS has already been stated a petition has
been presented to the Governor ana Council
for the pardon of Rufus ii. Waite, now con-
fined in Portland jail for rum selling. The
following summary OF the grounds on which
the pardon is asked, and reply to the objec-
lions which have been raised against it has
been submitted to the Governor and Council
1.-The petitioner is citizen of Portland,
without property and with large dependent
family, sentenced to imprisonment for term
OF thirteen months, for violations of the law
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors,
and three months of that term have expired.
He is a temperance man of good habits
and good character, and with this exception,
has never been suspected or accused of any
violation of the law of the land.
She has not at any. time kept a rum shop
with an open bar, for the sale of strong LIQUORS
but only quiet and orderly eating house in
which nothing stronger than beer has been
sold.
He is afflicted with severe form of
asthma, and has engaged 10 this business in
consequence of his inability to perform man
ual labor.
5-He is confined in cell at niglt and has
the privilege of the prison corridor by day.
o. his disease is worse at night and prevents
him from occupying a reclining position in
resting or sleeping.
For this reason he requires fresh and pure
air and frequent change of it, especially dur
ing his paroxysmal struggles for breath.
which be cannot find in prison CELL
o-Hls confinement greatly aggravates the
disease. He is very weak and feeble, has
already lost nineteen pounds of flesh, and, in
the opinion of DR.. Chadwick, his physician, is
IN danger OF dying from long continued i'm
prisonment.
Gin his condition of health, the punish
ment inflicted, which could be endured by q
healthy man without serious injury, becomes
''cruel and unusual"
10-A pardon in this case establishes no
precedent in favor of extending the Executive
clemency to the class OF men known as rum
sellers.
11-Nor has society anything to fear from his
pardon. He IS not felon, nor does he belong
to the dangerous class of criminals
12-Nor will his release be harmful to the
cause OF temperance, because he has abandon
ed the traffic and will not resume it.
13-His release from imprisonment will be
gratifying to the community in which he re-
sides. One hundred and fifty of his fellow
citizens, including the Mayor Of the city, the
| City Solicitor, the five Representatives of the
| City in the State Legislature, the Postmaster,
the Surveyor of the Port, the Judge of Pro-
bate and many well known gentlemen of be-
nevolence and humanity, who have the cause
of temperance sincerely at heart have recon-
mended his pardon.
Ito grant this pardon will be humane,
benevolent and Christian act; and the oppose
ton to it is the offspring OF cold-blooded and
blind fanaticism.
The only manifestation of opposition to this
act of clemency appears in paper addressed to
the Governor and Council, written by Neal
Dow, and signed by himself and Job T. San
ford. The first reason assigned in that paper
for the refusal of pardon is that the petitioner
has been one OF the most obstinate and per-
sistent violaters of low in the City of Port
land. That he has persisted in selling beer in
| connection with his eating house, until year
ago last February, is not denied. But it is also
true that he gave up his shop at that date and
has neither kept an eating house nor sold beer
since.
The next reason is "that he told one of the
undersigned (which one does not appear that
he could not be stopped FROM selling LIQUOR. /"
Now this slight bravado, which seems to have
greatly disturbed Gen. Dow, if uttered, can
be of very slight consequence, when as mat
ter of fact, he was stopped from selling Ii
| quor' more than a year ago-and has given his
| public pledge to the Governor and Council
that he has forever abandoned the traffic, and
only asks pardon upon the condition that he
| shall never resume it.
The third reason assigned is that "there is no
truth in the allegation that his health is worse
than usual" To Esuppose that man aflict-
ted with severe asthma, confined by day to a
| corridor in which there are seventy-two prison.
| ers, and by night committed to small cell in
the same prison corridor, and who, struggling in
| the paroxysms of disease to breathe at ALL is
compelled to inhale such impure atmosphere,
requires degree of credulity which is incredi-
Bile; but when, in addition to this, the fact is
proved that in three months the prisoner has
lost nineteen pounds of flesh, and is very feeble
and falling. it is quite apparent that the phil
anthropic gentlemen who have signed this ra-
per are mistaken as to an important fact which
is the very basis of the application for pardon
In this case, and the main ground upon which
it is asked.
The fourth reason assigned is that "there Is
no reason to justify his pardon that would not
apply to petition for the repeal of the Maine
Law and enacting the policy of free rnm."
This declaration is certainly most extraordina-
ry. What the granting of the pardon asked
upon the ground stated in the petition has to
do with the repeal of the Maine law and the
enactment of free rum, it is difficult to per-
ceive.
A man, pale, weak, worn and emaeiated, al.
Hicted with most distressing disorder, who
has been confined in prison for three months,
where he has already lost nearly twenty pounds
of flesh and is gradually failing; whose life,
perhaps, depends upon his having access to the
pure air of heaven, applies for a pardon for
these reasons, and the reply to it is, "You
might as well petition for the repeal OF the
Maine law and enacting the policy of free
rum" The logic of this statement is only
equailed by its want of humanity.
1t is submitted that Messrs Ring, Pennell
and Todd, all three representive temperance
men who favor the granting of this pardon,
are as much entitled to consideration as the
two remonstrants, with better reasons for their
humane recommendations and with the mani
festation of nobler spirit of benevolent re-
form.
The object of the punishment in this case
has been accomplished-th reformation of the
criminal. What more need be done?