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Henderson th 1861
To His Excellency
B Magoffin
Dear Sir
With this will be handed you copy of a record in the case of the Commonwealth vs Beverly,
I was the counsel defending and the facts proven, were as follows, Mr Beverly is a wholesale and retail Grocer of our place last fall his clerk Henry Gobin sold to an old boy Tom, whiskey,
The boy is the property of Mrs Clay as charged in the indictment, but was at the time & has been for years in the employment of Mr Pasey, Mr Gobin swore that he did ^not^ know wether Mr Beverly was in the building or not at the time of the sale, the room is very deep and & Beverly might have been at the desk and known nothing of the selling which took place in the back part of the room, The sale took place in the fall of last year- We offorced an order from Pasey for whisky which had no date, We also introduced Pasey who swore the order was given last fall, but could not fix the precise time- the Court refused to let the order be read because it was not dated,- as is shown by the bill of exceptions taken at the time, We think the Court erred in several other particulars as shown by the record, Mr Beverly is a man of wealth
and a large slave-holder- The amt is not great for him, but he thinks & I think injustice was done him on the trial
He does not desire to be put the expense of an appeal, and therefore asks you to releeve him from the fine.
The chances in this county are greatly against us, but we "will not give up the Ship" We hope yet the County will by august give a Southern Rights Majority
Your friend
J, W, Crockett