To his Excellency
The Governor of Kentucky

The undersigned citizens of Washington County respectfully represent that Henry C Gillispie of said County was tried at the recent Oct term 1865 of the Washington Circuit Court on an Indictment for Killing John B Lawrence and convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to undergo a punishment of six years and six months confinement in the penitentiary — Your petitioners represent that on the trial of the cause the evidence was conflicting That credible witnesses proved that the decd assaulted Gillispie immediately before the latter shot him in a manner and under circumstances amply sufficent to justify said Gillispie in believing that when he shot Lawrence said Lawrence was about to stab him with a Knife — and that it was made circumstantially to appear that he was actually stabed by Lawrence before he shot he shot him — Said Gillespie is a poor young man of good character and family and has a wife and one child dependent on him — He has served the country over two years in the federal army in the recent war and was honorably

discharged from the service a short time before the trial — The record of his case will show that one of the Grand Jurors who indicted him was on the jury who convicted him — The sentence is severe, and may be wholly unjust; and believing as we do that his case appeals strongly for the interposition of Executive clemency we respectfully ask that he be pardoned — Oct 26 1865