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Louisville Ky
Your Excellency
Will will pardon my presumption in thus addressing you on tomorrow or next day I hope to have the honor of submitting to you a petition for the pardon of a negro girl now confined in the Ky prision In it I have endeavored to make a plane statement of the case.
It is the custom here for lawyers to sign each others petitions & I first adopted that plan but concluded I would get no more signatures, but write you on the matter for it is no trouble in the th to get a petition signed, you & I well knowing the way in which such things are done. I shall ask no pardon except when I ask in faith, believing it for the best, & I shall always in so doing make you a plain & candid statement accompanyd with citizens signatures when the necessity of the case demands- or when Your Excellencys request it. The case above mentioned is that of Joanna Bell which I hope your Excellency will take in a favorable light-
Sincerely Yours
J DeWitt Duncan