Jacob Hauserman to Beriah Magoffin

KYR-0001-020-2069.xml

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Accession Number

KYR-0001-020-2069

Document Genre

Petition

Repository

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

Collection

Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862

Item Location

MG24-99 to MG24-102

Date of Creation

n.d.

Dates Mentioned

--05

--07-03

Jacob Hauserman to Beriah Magoffin, n.d., Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, MG24-99 to MG24-102, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, KY. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-2069, (accessed April 23, 2024).

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To His Excellency,
Beriah Magoffin Governor of Kentucky:

Your Petitioner Jacob Hauserman respectfully & humbly states that at the May Term of the criminal court of Jefferson county he was convicted of Grand Larceny and sentenced to two years imprisonment in the state Penitentiary. He is innocent of the crime for which he was tried, convicted and sentenced He never stole any thing in his life and has a sense of honor which renders him incapable of knowingly committing ^such^ a crime. He is now rappidly approaching Sixty years of age and during the almost three score years that he has lived in this country and his native Germany the crime for which he is now convicted is the only offense against the laws of any land with which he has ever been charged.

Your petitioner is a dyer by trade and is in the habit of searching over the city of Louisville for old pieces of iron from which to gather the rust to be used in coloring. In one of these searches he came across a lot of Jewelry ^on the bank of the River among some rubbish^ which to all appearances had been for some time lost. Being unacquainted with the laws and customs and even the language of this his adopted country he thought the articles found became his
by the finding and he therefore appropriated them to himself, for his poverty and many wants forbade him from doing otherwise than appropriate what he thought was his own by finding -- as much his own indeed by the act of finding as if he had acquired them by purchase.

It turned out however that the articles he found were stolen the store of a M^r Robertson of Louisville had been entered & robbed of the articles in question This robbery however was unknown to Your petitioner and had your petitioner have dreamed that the articles in question were stolen he would have restored them to the owner or had nothing whatever to have done with them

It is not the purpose of your petitioner to argue the question of his guilt or innocense & as he cannot forbear stating that so soon as he found this Jewelry in question he ^took^ ~~sent~~ more of it to the auction room of C C. Spencer in this city to be sold; & it was left with the auctioneer with the private marks of M^r Robertson the owner upon cash article. If your petitioner had been guilty of the theft he would
certainly have erased these marks to present identification But feeling guilty of no wrong and suspecting nothing but his own good title to the articles found he sent them to the auction room as he found them for the purpose of turning them into money.

Your petitioner thus being found in possession of the stolen goods and having no testimony but his own as to the finding of them was charged, tried, convicted and sentenced as a felon. Not supposing that any harm would really come of the trial he took no steps to prove the good character which he feels entitled to state that he has always born both in this and his native country. Your petitioner repeats that he is incapable of committing such a crime as that with which he has been charged and prays that your Excellency with that Mercy which often heals the wounds of the law's rigidity may pardon him and set him again at liberty. He has lived half a century in honor & ~~industry~~ prays an opportunity to end his days not in a prison where he must be honest from necessity but at
liberty where he may be honest from the prompting of an honest heart.

Your petitioner appends hereto the the signatures of some of his countrymen who know him well and have well known him for many years and the signatures of some of his adopted countrymen who wish better of him than the felon's fate which has been assigned him. He ~~Louisville Ky [...]~~ ^also adds the signatures of as many of that Jury that^ convicted him as could conveniently be seen, some of the Jury ^residing in the country and not^ ~~[...][...]~~ having been asked to sign this petition.

Jacob Hauserman

The undersigned citizens of Louisville respectfully state to His Excellency, Gov Magoffin that they are well acquainted with Jacob Hauserman whose petition appears preceeding this; that the said Hauserman is in their opinion an honest man in the strictest sense of the term and utterly incapable in their estimation of committing larceny of any thing. on the property of any person; that they do not beleve he stole the articles for which he has been convicted or had anything to do with the getting of them in any other way than that named in the
petition, which is that he found them on the river bank and took possession of them in the honest belief that they were his own by the finding. They state further that Hauserman is a man turned of fifty years whose long life up to this act has not the blemish of a charge of violated law. They think he is a fit subject for Executive clemency and humbly Join in the petitioner's prayer for a pardon.

Dr. T. F Shite
B Waylon
A Müller
Eng. Michot
Ls Michot
Albert Chryeler.
B. Duer
J. J Besançon
F Stoll
Geo W Doane
John Lützelschwab
Jos Rendhaar
Henry Fink
Sam^l Sulzer
Joseph Rendhaar.
Conrad Leulhey
G Fred Deoky
John G: Richard
John Lyan

Vincent Fricker
M [Jeriel]
T. V Kermet
J. Holzer
G Aebly
C Aebly.
Ch: Mayflar
T. W. Galenger
J Aebly
john Loran
Anton Trauth
John F Schäfer
Wm. Schafer
Jacokb Rüffra.
A. Zehnder.
Dom. Zehnder.
John Käklin.
J. Denzinger.
A. Bissig.

A. Kamer.
M. Miller
Painter Kündost
Sigmont Schmit
Skale William
Anton [Bissig]
David Blumer
Conrad Haeberlin
[...][...]
Daniel. Arnold
Samuel Rothenbuehler

C C. Spencer states that he has for many years been an auctioneer in Louisville, that he has had many dealings and business transactions with Jacob Hauserman the party named in this foregoing petition and allways found him straight and honest; that he was the auctioneer a when Hauserman brought the articles for sale which he was charged with stealing; that the private marks of ^the owner^ the articles were upon them ^so conspicously as to forbid the idea of their having been stolen by Hauserman who would have erased the marks by which they could be identified if he had stolen them; that he his auction room is very near to^ ~~& that transaction was [...] with[...] from~~ the place of the theft; and that the whole manner conduct and bearing of Hauserman in relation to the articles stolen left no doubt upon his mind ^and there is no doubt in his mind now'^ that Hauserman came by them honestly or at least that Hauserman thought he got them honestly. He Joins in the petition for a pardon and respictully recommends Hauserman to His Excellency as a worthy recipient of executive clemency

C. C. Spencer

The Undersigned Jurymen who sat in the case of the Commonwealth against Jacob Hauserman are of the opinion that Hauserman through ignorance of the law and not through crime became possessed of the articles for which he was convicted and we recommend him to ~~the~~ His Excellency Governor Magoffin as a fitting subject for Executive Clemency & pardon.

Thos. H. Crawford
W. R. Coleman
B. Miller
Lewis Shafer
A T Oldham
J Enders

Jacob Hauserman &c
To } Petition for Pardon
Gov Magoffin
Pardon Issued July 3^rd

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