The Topeka state journal., 1899-12-02
RULE SHATTERED.
Governor Does Not Grant a
Thanksgiving Pardon.
Mr. Stanley Discusses a Most
VexatiOus Question.
HE is CONSERVATIVE.
Refuses to Issue Amy But Con-
ditiOnal PardOns.
Greatest Trouble Is With Poll
tfcians With ssFloOence."

For the first time in the history of
the state a governor has not issued a
Thanksgiving pardon to an inmate of
the county jail, state reformatory or
state penitentiary.
Governor Stanley this year passed on
a number of applications for executive
cIemency but declined to interfere with
the judgments of courts and the SEN
tences passed by judges whose only
business it is to hear prosecutions.
It has been the custom in years past
for the governors of all parties to issue
a special pardon to some prisoner-on
Thanksgiving day. AS a result Gov
ernor Stanley was pressed in several
quarters to take such action but he re-
Trained from 50 doing
The pardon case which the governor
has the most trouble in dealing with is
the one which is presented and pushed
by politicians who, failing to get an Of
flee, take this means of seeking re-
wards for their political services. The
cases pushed by lawyers are very few
because the governor will pay no more
the case than he does to the outline
presented by the friends or relatives of
the condemned persons. In many let
ters to the executive, poor people ex-
press to the governor the idea, that they
are too poor to employ a lawyer. a
characteristic reply to this, from re-
You do not need a lawyer. Your
case will receive the same attention
when it is taken up by mail at is would
We're you here to present it in person.
Your personal connection with the case
viii accomplish just as much as the
work done by a lawyer"
In a case presented to the governor
for a Thanksgiving pardon some prom
inent politicians urged that immediate
action should be taken. They were so
much interested in the matter that
they sent the governor a. long message
by WIRE, IN which 1t was explained that
the applicant was a deserving man and
that his destitute family stands in ser
iOus need of his assistance
The governor has taken a new Step
in the pardoning direction and is now
issuing only conditional pardons. He
has not issued more than two absolute
and unconditional pardons since he
was inaugurated and will confine the
executive clemency which he is author
lied to exercise to these conditional
documents.
Discussing this proposition which is
always urged in connection with par
don cases, the statements concerning
destitutiOn in the families of prisoners.
the governor said to q Journal repor-
ter:
THE pardoning power is one of the
most vexatiOus questions, in my Opin-
ion, with which a governor has to deal.
Representations are made concerning
destitutiOns in families. all of which I
doubt not is true. But this is one of
the unfortunate things in the annals of
crime; the penalty is not inflicted upon
the prisoner as it is intended to be,
but the real suffering comes to the
mans family.
THE husband or son or father is ta-
ken away to prison and his family is
left without means of support. Yet
an examination of the history of the
case and the record of the trial gener-
ally shows that the man was guilty;
that he had no thought of his family
he he
had forgotten every good teaching
which he had learned to indulge in vio-
lations of the law, yet when he is con-
fined in cell or the state penitentiary
then his soul is filed with remorse; he
pleads for his liberty upon the ground
that his family is suffering.
These are trying things for a man
in the position of governor to face but
1 find that in some of the very worst
cases which come before me that the
applicant has been guilty of some
crime for which he is being justly pun
ished. I can not interfere in such
cases. It would be folly for a governor
to undo with a single stroke of the pen
the work of our courts and juries.
hear the evidence are more capable of
judging of the character of the evil
dence and as to the guilt or innocence
of the prisoner than a man who knows
nothing of the case. These conditions
are what prompt me to say that 1 can
not act favorably upon these appIica-
tiOns.
If evidence is presented showing
that man is being unduly punished or
that there are mitigating circumstan-
ces am willing to do what I can to
correct injustice. but in the majority of
cases, in fact in nearly all of the cases
which are presented to me cannot in
terfere."
And these are the reasons why the
governors office contains a large num-
Der of applications for pardons which
have been recently refused