The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-25
AN OPEN LETTER.
J. Thos. Hefiin Explains His COnnec.
 fIOn With the JacOhi Coae

tIOn With the Jacobi Case.
 " ITO the Voters of the Fifth District: It has come to me that some par ties have been employed to go over the District circulating report to the eff feet that I wrote a letter to the Gov ernor urging him to pardon one Jacobi. This Is not true, as the Governor will himself testify. The facts are these:
 The Board of Pardons is composed of the State Auditor, Attorney General and Secretary of State. The Board cannot pardon any one. It can merely recommend and the Governor uses his own discretion In granting pardon. When two members of the Board agree to this or that course, the question is settled as the majority rules. As to the case of Jacobi: The Governor, the Attorney General and the Auditor at q meeting of the Board. passed on the application in my absence. l reached Montgomery from Birmingham, where had been to visit my sick wife, and found the Board in session. The At .torney General and the Auditor inform ed me that they had passed on the Jacobi case and had recommended his parole or pardon. The majority had spoken--the case was closed. There was nothing I could do that would change the situation. I did. however,  to this action. although the report of the Board recommended parole.
 Very truly,
 "J. Thomas Heflin.'
 As to the papers in the case at the capitol, I have never seen them, until today, since the Governor pardoned Jacobi.
 Ut is not the duty of the Secretary of State to keep papers of this char acter; but they belong in the Governors office, and that Is where they are always kept, have never. at any time, requested any body to hide the papers from Walker. or any one else. This Is the truth .of the matter, and make this statement to correct the falsehoods told concerning my attitude in the premises.
 Here is a letter to me from the Gov erwnors Private Secretary and his Re- cordlng Secretary, which fully explains itself and refutes Walkers charge:
 Montgomery. Sept, 23. 1904. Hon. J. Thos. Heflin:
 Dear Sir:
 I've wish to state that MT. B. W. Walker had never at any time prior to the moment when he asked Governor Cunningham for the papers in the Jacobi case. made any request of us to let him see same. He did. we are informed, come to the Governors of flee one afternoon after office hours. He asked the young lady who happened to remain in the office, for the papers. and she told him that she did not keep the file of pardon cases. and to see one of us who would at once let him have them; that we would be here at s 90 the next morning. MT. Walker insisted on looking in a file case In xu,ha AN haA seen folder of the case before" This folder was not shown to him before" by any one connected with the Gov srnors office. There was a folder. such as ordinarily employed in lawyers of- fees for containing papers, in this cabinet, which contained the reasons | of Governor Jelks why he issued the | pardon. This folder was too small to | contain all the papers in the case, | which were unusually voluminous. and | the day the pardon was issued these | reasons were placed in this folder. to- | gether with a statement of the case, | In order that the Secretary of State | might be shown same when he wrote | put the pardon, The papers were | placed in a cabinet in the Governors | office, where all other such granted | Dardons are paced, and in which cabI- act there are now and have been for months, many scores of such files of | pardon papers. The folder which he saw in the outer office in a file case here is in that file case now. It was here the day MT. Walker saw the papers in the Governors office, the first inc he requested to see them of the proper person. It was not in the file landed him. had not been moved from ts former receptacle. and has not yet ,een moved. These folders are merely sed for convenience, to aid in filing s one would use rubber or a braid Ve wish tJ state that neither you nor ny one else has asked us to conceal hese papers, that we have never at empted to do so and never desired to 0 so. J. K. Jackson.
 Private Secretary.
 M. H. Screws,
 Recording Secretary
 There is nothing to Walkers race or Congress. except what is seen n paper. did not meet him in joint ebate for several reasons: all those rith whom discussed the matter told ne not to notice him. and l did not