Arizona republican., 1910-06-05
Unusual Proclamation Of
Acting Governor Young
FROM MOOSE TO IS YEARS
Thomas Waddill Saves His
Neck and a Large Part of
His Natural Life Through
Unprecedented Clemency
of the Executive

Thomas WaddiH. under a sentence
Of death fsom Graham county. to be
executed at the territorial penitentiary
on June "A. will not die His sentence
was yesterday commuted by Acting
Governor George L. Young To fifteen
wears imprisonment. 1t is said that
this is the first recorded instance Of
the communication of a death sentence
10 lighter sentence than life i'm
priSonment.
The acting governor has issued
most novel proclamation. character
istic of the manner he has of doing
things. Anticipating explanations and
interviews. he has incorporated in the
proclamation the reasons for his ac-
tion. and briefly reviewed the facts
of the crime committed by Waddill.
The proclamation follows.
To all to Whom These Presents Shall
Come. Greeting:
In this communication | have no eX-
cuse to make nor apologies to offer
Society bindly gropes its way
through the gloom cast by the men
talties of the centuries past. The
interest. but one not pertinent here
Every public official is public
servant. and he should 50 consider
himself. YET excepting an individual
flash here and there in the seething
vortex Of humanity's evolution not
until this day has the faintest tracing
of this truth been discernible on the
eastern horizon of mans destiny.
lie servant. an explanation of the
Reason Why / DO this act is due
society and the public in general. If
we have proven ourselves sufficiently
fearless to perform the act. and So
fair as to give you the Reason Why.
you. this public of Arizona. as my
court and jury, dare not render your
verdict against me without a fair
trial and a pause sufficiently long TO
think. reason and make mpregnable
deductions.
When YOU have done this. and then
If the verdict be against me I am
absolutely willing to assume the re-
sponsibilities and pay the penalty.
Had Osler been specific in his de-
ductions he would have been right.
but as he was general in his deduc-
mons ne was wrong
Few minds at 40 will stand the
test of the mental gauge Of 40. Soil
tude is the hardest test known when
applied to the mind Many do not
know, but there be those among the
pioneers of Arizona and i'm other new
countries who appreciate and know
the eccentricities and different species
Of insanity. if you please. with which
solitude taints practically every mind
at 20 that has spent its middle and
declining years in the silence of the
desert or mountain.
The history Of this boy, traced even
To his prenatal existence, has been
given me by one in whom l put the
most explicit confidence, and one
whom by his finite record, l am sure.
stands immensely credited in the
court Of the infinite. and in making
this strong assertion l eliminate the
god of the weak. the emotional. the
sentimental, the illogical and the cow
ard. The result of this careful in
vestigatiOn has been given me i'm the
following words:
Thomas Waddill, sentenced to be
hanged the last Friday in June, for
fatally shooting an old man known
as Uncle Jim Lindsay, was born in
the mountains of Graham county,
Arizona. barely nineteen years .agO.
His parents were simple country peo-
pie of little education and of limited
means. making the living for their
family of several children from a
small mountain ranch.
After he was 6 years old the boy
was sent to school, more or less. to
the little log school house at Pima,
until he was u, when he was needed
to help his parents on the ranch. The
country around his home was thinly
settled and the community of the
most primitive type. His associates
were boys as uneducated and unde-
veloped as himself and the work
which he did was of the rough sort
that does not develop skill of hand
or alertness of mind.
His experience was so limited that
he had never seen a town of any
size until after his arrest. and his
knowledge of life and people was
limited entirely to the neighborhood
in which he was born and had grown
up. None Of the safeguards and none
of the means Of training and develop
ment with which modern civilization
seeks to surround a growing boy came
i'm his way-all that he knew was
hard work, rough surroundings, and