Mandana Tileston to James F. Robinson
1863-07-28
- Date of Creation
- July 28, 1863
- Place of Creation
- Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio
- Document Genre
- Correspondence
- Repository
- Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
- Collection
- Office of the Governor, James F. Robinson: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons, Remissions, and Respites, 1862-1863
- Box / Folder
- R4-232 to R4-233
- CWGK Accession Number
- KYR-0001-029-0458
- 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
- 32211660
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- Dates
- 1863-07-28
Citation
Mandana Tileston to James F. Robinson, 1863-07-28, Office of the Governor, James F. Robinson: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons, Remissions, and Respites, 1862-1863, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-029-0458 (November 13, 2026).
Cincinnati
Gov. Robinson:
Having had the honor of an interview with your Excellency, I feel assured from the kindness of my reception, that I shall be pardoned for the liberty I take in addressing you, and urging as an additional motive for executive clemency, the failing health of my friend,
Not having seen him for three years, I was painfully conscious of the change for the worse in his physical appearance and am forced to the unwelcome conclusion, that an additional imprisonment of three years, if his life should thus long be spared, will leave him a mere wreck,
without a step between him and "That undiscovered country from whose house No traveller returns,"
In view of the circumstances and the state of public feeling I am not disposed to complain of the severity of his punishment, but confidently hope it may be considered a sufficient expration for his offence, though I am well aware that in the eye of Ky. law, as well as in the estimation of the people, it is one of great magnitude,
Until the imprisonment of my friend, I never realized the extent of the calamity of "Being sick and in prison" and in eleven long years of isolation from home and friends and all that makes life desirable, together with hard labor in the penitentiary, is comprised an amount of suffering, I am not able to contemplate with composure and trust his liberation will be considered an act of justifiable clemency,
Among the many deeply afflicted relatives of Mr. Fairbank, is a widowed & invalid Mother, whose days are apparently numbered, and who desires, with feelings a Mother only can know, once more to embarce her long lost — son,
Could your Excellency consistenly grant the petition for his release, you would have the consciousness of knowing that you had conferred upon me the greatest happiness that can be conferred upon woman, and would receive the benediction of a large circle of my own relatives, who with me mourn over the blighted prospects of the dearest hopes of youth, and I believe you would also receive the blessing of Him who has said "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me,"
Most Respectfully
Mandana Tileston
His Excellency Gov. Robinson