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Roan was on a. visit there. My son and his wife
both heard Judge Roan say, that he was satisfied
as to Frank’s guilt; and yet some people try to
make out that Judge Roan was always doubtful
as to his guilt.
I will go $lO for a monument to Mary Pha
f;an> with a history of the trial, from the jury to
be Prison Commission, and that the death sen
tence was at last commuted by Governor Slaton.
With best regards to you and your labors, I
am truly, A. M. MINOR.
ABUSE OF PARDON POWER.
t
When they tell you that John M. Slaton
acted conscientiously, and within his legal
rights, answer back’, that he did not confine
himself to his legal rights, and that his own
conduct proves that he wasn’t ruled by his
“conscience.”
When the Constitution of 1877 gave the
pardoning power to the Governor, it also
put him upon notice that he must not exer
cise the power without a reason, which he
must communicate to the Legislature.
The two constitutional clauses must be
construed together: and when so construed,
in the light of English law and practise,
they mean, that the Governor’s reasons for
executive clemency must be such as the Leg
islature will approve; and such as will show
to the people, that he did not act caprici
ously, did not arrogate to himself the right
to set aside the verdict. did not usurp
the functions of a Supreme Court of review.
The prohibition of judicial powers, meant,
that the executive must act upon something
which occurred after the courts got through
with the case; or upon some mitigating cir
cumstance which tempered justice and soft
ened the punishment of the guilty.
The Constitution never meant that a Gov
ernor could say, “/ hare re-tried this case,
and return a verdict of Not guilty.”
Nor did the Constitution ever mean, that
the Governor should say—
"l have re-tried this case., and find that
'the evidence fails to connect the accused with
the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The Supreme Court, can say that, but the
’Governor cannot.
The Supreme Court has often said that;
but no Governor ever said it, until Rosser’s
prrtner got hold of one end of the Frank
case.
Last year, Governor Slaton held the Law
to be, just as I have stated it.
He and Patterson both had the same idea
of the Law, then, that I am expressing now.
To prove that they are right, as to the law
in the Frank case, you have to argue that
they were wrong when jthey sent Nick Wil
burn, and Bartow Cantrell to the gallows.
If you can explain the sudden change,
made by ’Patterson and Slaton, and do it
on a theory creditable to human nature, for
God’s sake do it, quickly.
When they tell you that Slaton acted con
scientiously, after the most laborious exam
ination of the record—ably assisted by Jess
Perry—answer back, that the Jews in New
Work have known for months that Frank
would not hang; and that an ex-member of
the Georgia State Senate knew, weeks be
forehand, what Slaton meant to do!
Answer back, that some of Slaton’s best
friends begged him not to arouse suspicion
of his motive, by saving his firm’s client, but
to reprieve the man, and let his fate be de
cided by a Governor who is not a member of
a law-firm employed by Frank.
Answer back, that on Friday before the
commutation, a message over the Atlanta
telephone carried the news that Slaton hud
commuted.
Answer back, that the rich Jews knew of
it, Friday, and prepared for a joyous ban
quet at Frank’s house, where they were
feasting and drinking, for four hours on
Saturday night, while Slaton was giving out
lies, to the effect that Frank had better pre
pare for death, and that the decision in the
THE JEFFERSONIAN
case might not be reached, until Monday.
Answer back, that there is no coherence
whatever in Slaton’s lengthy explanation,
nor in his subsequent statements.
No man can tell from his 1,500-word docu
ment whether he believes Frank guilty ■ .
not: his failure to pardon, antagonizes tbe
idea that he believed Frank to be innocent.
You are left in doubt as to whether lie
leans most on Judge Roan, on Patterson, on
Justices Fish and Beck, on Justices Holmes
and Hughes, or whether he is agonized in
his mind by the experiments he made with
the elevator at the pencil factory.
SALLY SAYS “LET’S COMMUTE!”
In his elaborately ‘imbecile document, he
says that the noise he heard in Frank's favor
was the voice of Judge Roan, calling from
another world.
But when he bad safely landed in New
York. Slaton gushingly told the reporters
that the noise he heard in behalf of Frank
was the sweet voice of “Sally."
Lest you may doubt the correctness of this
statement, I will quote Slaton's delicious
words:
“ ‘Sally; I said, 'I have finished con
sidering this ease, and I am- not satisfied'
that the man should, be hanged.' 1
“‘Jack,' she answered, ‘if that is the
way you feel, LET'S COMMUTE! So
I commuted the sentence, and that's all
there is to it.”
“LET'S COMMUTE!”
“Says I to Maria, Maria, says I; and
Maria she says unto me"—l guess you know
the rest.
If Slaton’s mind had really been made up,
why the reference of the case io oally?
And if Sxiy had said, “Let's not com
mute,’’ wlvsre would that have left her Jack?
Was Sally the real commuter, after all?
and was it Sally Fanny Grant who annihi
lated both the juries, and both the Supreme
Courts ?
I wonder if there is a lead-line that would
sound the depths of Slaton's shifty shal
lows !
/l one moment, he is hi din a behind a
dead man; and at the next, he gets behind,
his wife's petticoats.
Slaton cannot complain of the mention of
his wife’s name. Nobody had done it; and
it was he who slopped over, in New York,
and divulged ithe private conversation which
took place in his country pal-ace, “at 3
o'clock on Sunday morning.”
'Slaton even named the room they were
in: it was their library: and Slaton says
that he “had been pondering for hours."
At that time of night, his hard-tail mule
was probably trying to sleep off his tax as
sessment of $25.
The noble cavalry horse, that had gal
loped after General Wheeler, was probah v
dreaming of the sixties, and fighting his
battles over again.
The family carriage and pair—“merely
kept for sentimental reasons" —were dozing
together, with never a thought of a war
zone, a machine gun, a barbed wire chevaux
de frise, and a glittering array of brass but
tons and bayonets.
It was in the library: it was three hours
after midnight! (Ghosts walk at that
hour.)
In New York, the*rich Jews already knew
that Frank had been commuted.
In Atlanta, the commutation was not only
known, but the preparations had been made
to celebrate the victory, in Frank's home, by
Frank's rich connections—to celebrate it
with wine and wassail, with song and jeer
and coarse exultation!
Yet, John M. Slaton, in New York, told
the reporter, that he was still deliberating
on the case, at three hours after midnight,
on Sunday morning: and that he turned F
Sally, and asked —
“What do you say?'’
And Slaton told the New Yorkers th:i<
Sally threw her arms around him, and
answered —
“Jack, let's commute!”
So, you see, we were unusually blessed in
having two gubernatorial judges to retr
the Frank case, and to upset all the courts;
one was Chief Justice Jack, and the other
was Associate Justice Sally.
The newspaper account proceeds to say—
The ex-Governor isn’t sure that his political
career is ended after all. It is no secret that his
ambition for years has been to be United States
Senator from Georgia. The World’s reporter
asked him:
“Will you be a candidate for that office at tbe
next election, Governor?”
“If the people want me—and if Mrs. Slaton
lets me,” he replied.
“Here’s one thing T wish the North to know.”
lie said. “I didn't slip out of Allanta, or sneak
away. Within a couple of days after my decision
caused all the excitement I was walking about
the streets as usual. I have nothing to fear.”
So. you see. Judge Jack'cannot even re
turn to Georgia, and run for the Senate, un
less free consent is given by Associate Jus
tice Sally.
“I was walking about the streets as
usual!”
“I have nothing to fear."
And all it cost us. to have Slaton walking
about the streets of Atlanta as usual, was
a thousand dollars a day.
And he wasn't afraid of anything, but
merely war-zoned himself, as a luxury:
barbed-wired himself, as a diversion; and
body-guarded himself, as a humorous varia
tion of his monotonous existence.
As a liar. Slaton is hard to beat.
He further said —
“Judge Roan realized that he made a mistake.
He wrote to me and begged me to commute the
sentence.”
“Judge Roan . . . wrote to me and
begged me to commute the sentence.”
And yet the hard-hearted Slaton had
never yielded to Roan, or to Rosser, or to
Hamp McWhorter, or to the Chicago lolly
wops. nor to the jackass governors, nor to
the Arizona and Tennessee Legislatures, nor
to the 800,000,000 petitioners, nor to the con
vincing effects of his experiments with that
elevator at the pencil factory—experiments
discounted, however, by the absence of any
soft substance at the bottom of the shaft, at
the time the Governor was riding up and
down in the vehicle
In spite of all the strenuosities of Jer
usalem and Jericho: in spile of all the
herculean muscularities of lawyers—attack
ing by platoons, attacking in thin red lines,
and attacking en echelon — in spite of every
thing that could be done by the confederated
hosts of Jerusalem and Jericho, our Gov
ernor wavered and waited, until the roosters
were crowing for 3 o'clock that night: and
then, at last, he wearily bent his tired brain
toward his Associate Justice, and asked—
'“Sally, what do you say?"
And Sally ups and says—•
“Jack, let's commute."
Don't you go and blame me for bringing
Slaton's wife's name into this thing: Slaton
did it himself. Therefore, it is perfectly
fair and legitimate for me to comment upon
the facts which the sapient fugitive gave out
in New York—and which Hearst's Atlanta
Georgian fatuously republished.
Where, where was the merciful Sally,
when so many noble women of Hall County
were pleading with her Jack, for the life of
that poor Georgia lad. Bartow Cantrell?
These Cantrells repented of their sins,
sought peace of soul in the old, old way;
and apparently became sincere Christians.
What they tell me about Bartow, the 17-
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