M. Mayes to Beriah Magoffin
1861-01-20
- Date of Creation
- January 20, 1861
- Place of Creation
- Cadiz, Trigg County, Kentucky
- Document Genre
- Correspondence
- 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
- Box / Folder
- MG17A-51
- CWGK Accession Number
- KYR-0001-020-0010
- Rights
- This image and its transcription are freely available to the public. Images appear courtesy of Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Transcriptions and annotations were created by Kentucky Historical Society staff, volunteers, and interns. When referencing this document, please use our preferred citation.; The use of transcriptions, images, or annotations from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce any material on CWGK is required.
- FTP Identifier
- 32208421
- Dates
- 1861-01-20
Citation
M. Mayes to Beriah Magoffin, 1861-01-20, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-0010 (November 12, 2026).
There will be presented to you for your examination and Consideration a copy of the Record from the Caldwell Circuit Court in the Case of the Commonwealth against Thomas Wadlington Convicted of Murder, and also a petition for his pardon. I was one of his Counsel and feel Confident in my own mind that he was improperly and illegally Convicted. That he was not guilty of murder, in slaying Cartwright, and let him have erred every so much, he was not guilty as charged. There was an certain destitution of proof of malice express & the malice implied by the killing was rebutted by the proof and Circumstances in the Case, and I think if there could be a Case Justifying the interposition of the Executive the Case of Wadlington is that Case. I am not in the habit of asking the interposition of the Governor to prevent the carrying out the Judgments of the Courts, but in the Case under Consideration, I should be doing violence to my Convictions of what is Justice if I failed to ask you to Consider and grant the prayer of petitioners for his pardon
Respectfully
M. Mayes
Hon B McGoffin
Governor of Ky
Frankfort
Hon Ex B Magoffin
Govenor of Ky
Frankfort
Ky