Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-04-26
LINCOLN PARDoNED HIM.

The President Took the Risk on the Side OF
Mercy.
Hon. 81. L. Dawes. in some recollec-
tions of Lincoln and Stanton, relates
an experience of his own in dealing
with these two men, who, $50 wholly
unlike in ways of work and thought,
walked together arm in arm, each sus-
tanned in the load he carried by the
arm he leaned on, and helped on his
way by the caution and counsel of him
who walked by his side" A quarter
master of Massachusetts, regiment
had been caught gambling with gov
eminent money, and had been sem
fenced to five years imprisonment in
the Albany penitentiary. Says Mr..
Dawes:
81 had received petition to the
president, signed'by many leading citi-
zens of the neighborhood of the often
der's home, Endorsed and certified to
by the physician of the penitentiary,
and also by leading physician of my
own town, tasking for his pardon on
the ground of failing health, and repre-
senting him to be in a sad condition of
decline, with every prospect of
speedy death unless he were released.
81 took this petition to Mr.. Lincoln,
who, after carefully reading it, turned
to me and said:
"'Do you believe that statement?
Certainly do. Mr.. President, or /
should not have brought it to you.'
'''Please say so here on the back of
it, under these doctors
Il did as requested, adding: And be-
cause believe it to be true I join in
this petition
''As signed my name Mr.. Lincoln
remarked, we can't permit the man to
die in prison after that statement and
Immediately wrote under tall:
"'Let this man be discharged. A. L.
HE handed the paper back to me,
and told me to take it to the war Office
and give it to Mr.. Stanton. He saw at
once something in my countenance
which led him to think that I had al
ready encountered some rough weather
in that quarter, and had little relish
for more. Mr.. Lincoln took back the
paper, and smiling, remarked that he
was going over there pretty soon, and
would take it himself.
''The next day, on going to the
house, I was met by two Michigan
representatives with the inquiry:
What have you been doing at the
White House? We wentthere to get a
poor Michigan soldier pardoned who
had been sentenced to death for deser-
ton, but we couldn't do anything with
the president. He told us that you
were there yesterday, and got him to
pardon man out of the penitentiary,
and when he took the paper to Mr..
Stanton he wouldn't discharge him.
6. .'He told me-" said the president,
''that it was a sham, and that Dawes
had got me to pardon the biggest ras-
cal in the army, and that had made
gambling with the funds perfectly
safe. couldn't get him to let the man
off. The truth is, have been doing
so much of this thing lately that
have lost all influence with this adj
ministration, and have got to stop.
81 went Immediately to the White
House, with my hair on end, but was
manner I inquired If the pardon had
gone out He replied that it had not,
and then recounted, in his quaint way,
the scene in the war office.
90. said to him that could not afford
to have this matter rest on any uncer-
tainty. Retain this pardon. send
message to Albany, and make certain
the truth or falsity of this statement
at my expense, if we have been imposed
upon Mr.. Lincoln's reply was:
az think, if you believe it, will.
At any rate, will take the risk on the
side of mercy
$50 the pardon went ont. And yet
the sequel proved that Mr.. Stanton
was the nearest right of the three; for.
on my return to Massachusetts,, almost
the first man who greeted me in the
street was the same dying quarter
master, apparently as hale and robust
as the best of the people around him."
MONTHLY.