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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

(Inclosed.) C. LEE, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 9.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


(Inclosed.)

C. LEE, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Alexandria, 2 September, 1799.

Sir,—

On the 29th of last month I had the honor to receive your letter of the 26th, inclosing the President’s of the 14th, and the several petitions for pardon in favor of John Fries and others, charged with high treason, and George Schaffer and others, convicted of misdemeanor, and Jacob Eyerman and John Everhart, charged with misdemeanor, in the late insurrection in Northampton and other counties in Pennsylvania.

The question proposed by the President affecting the liberty and property of some individuals, and the lives of others, has received my particular attention and most mature deliberation. I understand it as meaning whether any of the suppliants should be pardoned; for unless a pardon is granted in some of the cases, I am humbly of opinion no answer should be returned in any.

The power of pardoning criminals is vested in the Chief Magistrate for the public good. In deciding upon a petition for pardon, it is to be considered whether it will more conduce to the public good to deny or to grant it. To a benevolent and generous heart acts of mercy are so pleasing as often to overpower discretion, so that mercy to a few is cruelty to many.

In the course of five years, two insurrections against the lawful authority of the United States have happened in Pennsylvania. At a great public expense they have been each quelled. The first was more alarming, and was quelled at a much greater expense, than the last. The offenders in the first experienced the presidential clemency, and not a traitor suffered the punishment of the law. The offenders in the last, charged with treason, are yet all to be tried; and in the late defence of Fries, I understand, the dangerous doctrine was avowed by his advocates, of whom the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was one, that to resist by force the execution of a general revenue law of the United States, with intent that it should never be executed in certain counties, amounted not to treason, but to a misdemeanor only.

Pennsylvania, possessing very many good, is not without a considerable number of bad citizens, some of whom are ignorant, refractory, headstrong, and wicked. From these circumstances, I think an exemplary punishment of rebellious conduct is more necessary and will be more salutary in that State than in any other, and therefore that considerations of public policy require that the most criminal of the insurgents should be left to the due and impartial course of the law.

If this be most proper in regard to those whose lives are in jeopardy, it certainly is most proper towards those who have been or shall be convicted of misdemeanors, and whose punishments do not or shall not exceed the measure of their crimes.

In the treason cases, it is uncertain who, if any, will be convicted; but after judgment it will be then in season and also in the power of the President to discriminate, and to arrest the sword of justice, in regard to those who shall appear to have the best claim to his gracious and merciful interposition.

The like opportunity will occur in relation to those who shall be hereafter convicted of misdemeanor. As to such as have been already sentenced, no special circumstances are stated which distinguish the cases, and as no sufficient cause appears for pardoning all of them, there is no ground for exempting any from the punishment which they have been ordered to suffer; and consequently all should satisfy the sentences of the law. I believe Eyerman is a German priest, who but lately came into America, and instantly entered on the function of sowing sedition, and preparing his followers for works of darkness, disobedience, and rebellion. He has not been tried, and there is no danger of his being punished beyond his deserts.

Upon the whole, it is my mature opinion that the President should not return any answer to either of the petitions, and that no pardon should be granted under present circumstances to any of the petitioners.

I am, Sir, very respectfully, &c.

Charles Lee.

Eyerman is a German priest, who has been in America about two years, and not only thus early a sower of sedition in the country where he has found an asylum, but of an infamous, immoral character. Such has been my information.

Timothy Pickering.

We entirely concur in the Attorney-General’s opinion, that none of the petitioners should now be pardoned, nor any answer given them.

Timothy Pickering.

Oliver Wolcott.

James McHenry.

Ben. Stoddert.

Trenton, 7 September, 1797.