The record-union., 1896-04-14
CONVICT TAYLORS CREDITS.
he Asks Governor Budd to Restore
Those lie Lost.
The Philosophy That Ten Years IN
States Prison Has Evolved
in His Mind.

Governor Budd is in receipt OF long
communication from Clay Taylor, VINO
is serving q ten year sentence Ior purs-
larry in Folsom, having been sent there
on October %, 1889, with a prior con-
viction against him. The letter is
unique one, and the style or reasoning
Is peculiar. 1t runs as follows:
Dear Sir: If l have not committed
an offense beyond the limit Of apology,
in accommodating SO many pages, as the
result of my occasion to address the
Governor, that 1 may cause your excel
lency to deny the attention of moment
to this message from a convict, believe
you will resolve its motive to be sincere
and worthy of your favorable consider
alton. If it may meet with your disap-
proval 1 hope that 1 have not incurred
your censure for the presumption that
prompted my present appeal to your
Judgment in the hope of reduction OF
my term in the State Prison.
1t has been the general impression
among convicts that Governor Budd
will never exercise the pardoning power
to very generous extent, but the word
generous may be differently qualified by
legitimate opinion. But I observed the
action of your excellency in the instance
of pardoning a young man who had
violated a conditional pardon I am,
therefore, assured that your excellency
will recognize an honest motive, even
among men civilly prescribed. The
special merit in that case demanded the
conscientious favor of the clemency
granted.
The merit Of my appeal may not be
-
which / refer, as / am characterized as
a confirmed offender Of the law. hav-
ing almost finished my second term of
ten years, with previous term of three
years to my discredit. But / am not a
criminal and were 1 of the capricious
disposition of the average convict, as
liable to turn to the left as to the right,
Imprisonment henceforth would only
amount to Generalization of my en-
deavor. / violated the law by the COM
mission of number of petty burglaries,
for which 1 have already served nearly
as long a time as the average term for
murder. Aside from two terms in
prison I have never served a day in
Jail. I have never associated with
criminals. I prefer honest and indus
trious habits.
might be deduced from my department
in prison, as / attempted to escape six
years ago, but have acquired valuable
experience and different opinions since
that remote time. 1 have served three
or four years since my inordinate res
olutions to abide in radical principles
To such a disposition further detention
is an imposition, mockery and a chal-
cin iVc
where justice and the assurance of pub
lie safety are intensified into spirit of
vengeance that is liable to excite re-
taliatory spirit of vengeance in the
ignorant mind of the convict and hope
less outcast, who should not be supposed
to be more sagacious than society in the
suggestion of a compromise. I am un-
able to furnish or conceive of a more
worthy plea for the precious year of
my credits than the knowledge in my
own mind Of Christian promises. A con-
firmation Of criminal inclinations is i'm
piled in the frequent presumption that
certain characters are beyond redemp-
ton in the face of acknowledgment Of
the irresponsibility of past offenses, and
reassurances that the most deliberately
culpable responsibility will attend future
offenses that doubts Of such promises
suggest.
If the uncongenial past is the most
wise judge of the mysterious future,
then every inmate of penal institu-
ton were better deprived Of the custom
ary figure of speech and doomed to the
term of his natural life behind prison
walls so far as the moral quality of the
question is concerned. My case has
been before the Honorable Board Of
Prison Directors, to whom there ap-
pears no good reason for the restoration
of my lost time" But the current i'm
preston appears to be that the safest
plan is the wisest one for the dispensa-
ton of those concerning whom no hon
orable citizen will ever inquire.