The Savannah morning news., 1901-04-24
HIS FINE WARRECORD
ING JosEPH N. wOLFsoN FROM
PENITENTIARY.
uFl PED EMBEZzLE $4,000.
LAW NEW ORLEANS LAWYER
AVOIDED STRIPES.

Keeping in the Army He Kept
~. of the Penitentiary, and by
lin. n Good War Record He
ot,.oined Favor in High Circles.
mad Powerful influential Friends.
,.ornev General Appeals for
c,emency in His Behalf.
,,-.-,,tro+on April 2S.-The President to-
,,rdoned Joseph N. Wolfson, who
o' convicted in 1896 in the United States
,,,-.riot Court of Louisiana OF being in
-.,,,,sion with the bookkeeper of the
-, National Bank of New Orleans in
~. ambezzlement of $4,000 of the funds
- 4be bank. and who was sentenced to
oigb+ wears imprisonment.
Tho case is in many respects remark
,hla one and has attracted considerable
.tta,tion Wolfson was a prominent law
-.r in New Orleans before the failure
- +he bank in 1896, and had been a de-
,ost+or in the institution for many years
.u;o, 70 that time. OF the missing funds
10 was charged with having obtained
s,o oo The long legal battle, which to-
dav ended in Wolfson's pardon. then be-
can Wolfson had the aid of powerful
and influential friends. The case was APP
realed to the Circuit Court of Appeals,
uhich affirmed the decision of the lower
,onrt and was then carried to the Su-
,,roroe Court on writ of certiorari
Meantime Wolfson continued the practice
NJ his profession in New Orleans until
the breaking out of the Spanish Ameri-
c.r War. Being then under sentence
with his case still pending in the
s,nreme Court he enlisted in
the volunteer army with the
consent of the Attorney General and the
Secretary of War and served until Feb
rusry 1899. when he was mustered out
He then enlisted in the regulars and went
to the Philippines, where he served until
october. 1900, when he was invalided
home. In January of the present year
the Supreme Court refused the writ of
certiorari and Wolfson applied for execu-
five clemency He still has about one
wear to serve in the regular army before
his term of service expires. He expects
to return to the Philippines Immediately
and rejoin his regiment.
His Claim for Consideration.
In recommending the pardon to the
President, the Attorney General said:
He approaches you as suppliant for
pardon asking that his brave deeds and
shattered health be accepted as atonement
for the crime of which he stands legally
convicted. The history of the world is
full of circumstances where transgressions
Of the law in cases of the gravest char
acter and consequences have been con-
doned by signal public service in time of
war or great emergency. Many cases
may he found in the records of our civil
war where a good record as a soldier
brought immunity from punishment for
previous transgression. Had Wolfson's
name been untarnished his military SER
vices and devotion to duty at the time of
the Chinese crisis would doubtless have
commended him to you for recognition
This is not my own deduction 1t is SO
stated by Maj. Knights report. If he has
earned honor and advancement, which 1t
IS not easily to bestow would ID not be a
peculiarly gracious act to remove from
MIN SO far as you can the consequences
OF his offense? 1t seems so to me and
therefore | recommend that the applica-
ton for pardon be granted"