Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1887 — EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY. [ARTICLE]

EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY.

Governor Og-ifsby Cnmuiutfs the Sentence in the Ouse of Fielden and Schwab. The following is the Governor’s decision in full in the Anarchist esse: State of Illinois, ~) Executive Office, Springfield. Ill:, V' November 10, 1887. J On the 20th dry of August, 1886, in the Cook County Criminal Court, August Spies, .Albert R. Parsons, Samuel Fielden.Miobatl SchwsbAdolph Fischer, George Engel aud Louts Lingg were found guilty by the verdict of the jury and afterward were sentenced to be banged for the murder of Matthias J. Began. An appeal was taken for such finding and sentence to the Supreme Court of the State. That court,'upon a final hearing, and after mature deliberation, unanimouslv affirmed the judgment of the coart below. The ca*e now eomes before me by pet* tiou of the defendants for consideration as Got emorof the State. If the lowers of Albert Parsohs, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and Louis Lingg, demanding ' unconditional release,' 1 or as they express it ''liberty ordeath,” and protesting in the strongest language against mercy or eommutation of sentence pronounced against them can ,be considered petitions, a pardon could It be granted, which imply any guilt’ whateTer upon the Dirt of either of them, would not be such a as they demand. Executive intervention upon the grounds insisted upon by the four above named persons, could in no proper sense be deenSed an exercise of the constitutional power to grant reprieves, commutation and pardons unless based upon the belief on my part of their entire innocense of the crime on which they stand convicted. v A careful consideration of the evidence in the record of the trial of the parties, as well as of all alleged and claimed for them outside of the record, has fated to produae upon mv mind any impression tending to impeach the'verdict of the jury o r the judgment of the trial court or of the Supreme Court affirming the guilt of all these parties. Satisfied, therefore, as I am of their guilt, I am precluded from considering the question of commutation of the sentence* of Albert R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg to Imprisonment in the penetentiary. as they emphatically declare they will not accept such commutation. Samuel Fielden, Michael 8 hwab and August Spies unite in a petition for “exeutive clemency;” Fielden and Schwab, in addition, present seperete an supplementary petinms for the eommutation . f their sentences. While, as said above,l am satisfied ol the guilt of all the parties, as found by The verdict of the jury, which was •stained by the judgments of the courts, a most careful consideration of the whole subject leads me to the conclusion that the sentence of the law as so gamtiel Ffclden and - Sellwab,~ may be modified aa to each of them in the in-

t®re«t of humanity and without doing violence to public Justice. And as to the said flamu el Fielden and Michael Schwab the sentence 1® commuted toimpriaonaaent In the renitentlarr foi life. As to all the other named defendant®. I do not feel justified In Interfering with the aentance of the court. While t would gladly have come to a different conclusion in regard to the aentence of defendants August Spies, Adolph Fisher, George Engel, Albert R Parsdns and Louis Lingg, I regret to say that under the solemn sense of the obligation of ay offloe, I have beea unable to do so. Rich AMD J. Oeusar Hsrsrnor