Covington
8 January 1862
My dear Gov^r

An afflicted father begs a line from me to you on behalf of an erring & it may be a guilty son — !

I know nothing of the facts, save that a young boy of respectable connections in his 17^th year has been convicted of appropriating the proceeds of a church, with which he was entrusted, to his own account —

Will an incarceration

in the penetentiary for eighteen months, or for a day benefit this youthful offender? Will it not rather harden him, & take away the last hope of reformation? If this be his first crime, if bad associations & heedless dissipation has hurried him to the brink of the precipice, & brought him to see the felons cell as his abode for eighteen months, may not a pardon, before he

enters it [save] him?

I submit these [views] to your consideration, in the view of public policy, not less than a humane regard for the feeling's of this unfortunate boy, whose guilt I presume is beyond question.

If his youth & respectable connections afford a ground for your interposition, I hope you will pardon him —

Very truly your &c
J W Stevenson