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 November 11, 2025 Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862 KYR-0001-020-1102 MG20-209 to MG20-210

Petition English Version 1 of page "6": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "6": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 0 of page "5": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 1 of page "4": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "4": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 1 of page "3": Changes to page transcript. Version 1 of page "2": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "3": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 1 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "2": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 0 of page "1": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile.
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To his Excellency Beriah Magoffin, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,

The undersigned Petitioners, citizens of Mason County would respectfully represent that at the present April Term of the Mason Circuit Court, Geore W Wilkinson, a citizen of the said County, was indicted and tried for the offence of stabbing Hall, in a sudden affray without mailice, and not in self defence. The proof of the fact being clear, the Jury found the defendent guilty, and fixed his punishment a fine of fifty Dollars and imprisonment in the County Jail of for Six months, Though the Jury were constrained by the evidence to find the defendent guilty, it seems that they did so reluctantly, and only from an acute sense of the rigid obedience due to their oaths. The Jury were so much impressed in favor of the defendent by the good character which he sustained in the community where he immediately resides and the many extenuating circumstances attending the commission of the offence, that ten of the Jurymen immediately signed a petition to your Excellency for his pardon, The Grand Jury of the County also then in session, and the Same which found the Indictment were induced by the Same Circumstances to to sign a paper recommending his case as one fit for the interposition of Executive Clemency

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The said two petitions are attached to and will accompany this Petition.

The defendent George W Wilkinson, an orderly and industrious mechanic, has resided in the town of Mayslick, where a majority of the undersigned live, for several years; and has by his many amiable qualities and his general propriety of deportment and his inoffensive manner of life concliated the esteem of the whole community, who feel a deep interest in his behalf and ardently desire that the penalty adjudged against him for the offence should be remitted. He is a person much beneath the medium size of mankind physically and of an extraordinarily feeble habit of body, He is at the same time a person of mild amiable amiable and inoffensive disposition and manner upon a convivial occasion, and when under the influence of intoxicating drinks, to which he is not much accustomed he became engaged in an altercation with Hall, and in defence of what he, no doubt supposed to be a dangerous attack upon him by Hall, he used his knife and inflicted a slight wound upon the person of his opponent. Your Petitioners from their Knowledge of his general disposition and temper, and from the habitual mildness and gentleness of his manners and deportment are well satisfied that when fully possessed

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of the use of his faculties, the defendent would be very far from resorting to the use of weapons, or indulging in violent manifestations of any Kind. The petitioners do not think that the public interests or safety requires that the defendent should undergo the punishment presented by law, and fixed by the Jury, nor do they think that Justice demands it, On the other hand from the feeble and delicate state of the defendents health, they believe that his close confinement for six months in the foetid and impure air of the County prison would be attended with permanently serious and perhaps fatal consequences to the defendents constitution. Such a consumation of the verdict of the Jury and the Judgement of the Court would be as far from the wishes and intentions of those who found the Verdict and pronounced the Judgement as it would ^be^ alien to Justice, and the mild and benevolent spirit of our Criminal laws, Actuated by the foregoing reasons and considerations the undersigned unite with the Jury and Grand Jury in an urgent appeal to your Excellency, to remit so much of the punishment inflicted in this case, as your ^You have^ power to control and as duly bound we will ever pray &c

F. B. Plyley Joseph, V. Burgess R D Chinn

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J, H, Watson Geo, Myall R. L. Early Thos, H, Williams A, W, Hawkins Edward Myall Geo F Allen Wm J. Burgess Henry. S. Jefferson Andrew Dye L C Coulten C. G. Sargent Eucas Myall E Laytham Hamilton Gray M T. Cockrell R. T. Riffen John Richardon L. P. Streator R. A. Toup Frank Gibb E H Herndon B C Duke W Coulter Marshel J, L, Bush Walter Scott B. L. Groves Wm B. Parker Jailor Mason Co. W H Devin, Marshal. of. Maysville Jas N Morrisone Jno. McCarty James H. Berry W W Baldwin Sheff Mason Co Keith Berry. clk Mason ct ct

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Mason Cir. Ct. $50. & 6 Mos. Impt

Geo. W. Wilkinson Remission Issd May 9th 1861

Petition