The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-11
President Mckinley, Through the At
torney General, Orders Him Re-
Ieased from Michigan City Prison.
PETITIONS FROM THIS CITY
LETTERS FROM MESSRs. BURKE
AND KERN HAD GREAT WEIGHT.
Review of Crime for Which Coffin
Was Sentenced to Eight Years
ImprisOnment.

Word was received in the city last night
by friends of Francis A Coffin that Presi-
dent Mckinley had granted him a. full and
unconditional pardon, and that message
ordering his release at once from the State
Prison at Michigan City had been sent to
Warden Harley by Attorney General JOS
eph McKenna. The news came as a sur
prise to some, but to those who have been
actively interested in the case of this man,
charged with wrecking the Indianapolis
National Bank, the pardon was an expected
result of the work that has been done in
Collins behalf.
For year or more Coffins friends have
been working for his pardon. Petitions
were circulated in this city and were gen.
erously signed, and the further away sped
time from the day of the conviction the
more willing seemed those asked to sign
them. This went to show, Collins friends
claimed, that public sentiment was grad
ually changing. Men who We're anxious, at
the time of the failure of the indianapolis
National Bank, to see everybody connected
with it, from president down to office boy,
convicted and sent to prison, gradually
came to look at the matter with less biased
minds, it was claimed, and many arrived at
never have been convicted, or, at least had
been punished sufficiently Another view
of the case, which few entertained during
the exciting days following the announce
ment that the indianapolis National Bank
was total wreck was that there was no
reason for convicting men outside the bank
for looting it. 1t was urged by those active
in Collins behalf that the statutes are clear
that it shall be felony for the bank officials
to loan more than 10 per cent. of an amount
equaling the banks capital stock to one
person, firm or corporation. 1t has since
been argued that Coffin should not have
been convicted of footing the bank because
Haughey loaned him more than the law
allows.
Thus it was that the petitions for Coffins
pardon received the signatures of so many
prominent people. 1t is said by those who
know that the petitions bore the names of
some of the men who lost heavily in the
failure of the bank-the very men who were
ready to go to the furthest extremes In the
punishment of everybody connected with the
bank or having any dealings with it, The
petitions bore the names of prominent at
torneys, merchants and city, county and
State officials and others
The petitions for a pardon were for
warded to Washington during the admin
istration of President Cleveland, and, ac-
cording to the course pursued in such mat
tiers, were filed with Attorney General Har-
mon. 1t was noticeable that Judge Baker,
the trial judge in the case, and Frank 3.
Burke, the district attorney, failed to rec
ommend the pardon, and tor that reason
the matter at first was pigeonholed in the
office of the attorney general. 1t is a rule
of practice in the Department of Justice in
such cases that the attorney general shall
not burden the President with pardon cases
where the trial judge and district attorney
fail to recommend the pardOns. Thus the
announced that the pardon had been re-
fused. But it was an early day then.
influential men go to Washington and in
sist that the case be placed in President
CleYeland'S hands.