SPIES’ LAST LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR.
“CHICAGO, Ill., Nov. 6.—Gov. Oglesby, Springfield, Ill.—SIR: The fact that some of us have appealed to you for justice—under the pardoning prerogative—while others have not, should not enter into consideration in the decision of our case. Some of my friends have asked you for an absolute pardon. They feel the injustice done them so intensely that they cannot conciliate the idea of a commutation of sentence with the consciousness of innocence. The others (among them myself), while possessed of the same feeling of indignation, can perhaps more calmly and dispassionately look upon the matter as it stands. They do not disregard the fact that through a systematic course of lying, perverting, distorting, inventing, slandering, the press has succeeded in creating a sentiment of bitterness and hatred among a great portion of the populace that one man, no matter how powerful, how courageous, and just he be, cannot possibly overcome. They hold that to overcome that sentiment or the influence thereof would almost be a physiological impossibility. Not wishing, therefore, to place your excellency in a still more embarrassing position between the blind fanaticism or a misinformed public on one hand and justice on the other they concluded to submit their case to you unconditionally.