TO E. RANDOLPH, ESQ.
Washington, December 28, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I received yesterday your favor of the 22d. It was the first information I had had of the sentence against Moss, the district attorney not having written to me as you supposed. I referred the case to the Post Master General, who in his answer says, "His is not a single crime, but a series of crimes, for months if not years. There were found upon him between $1,300 and $1,500, which he had robbed in small sums."
You are sensible that the Legislature having made stripes a regular part of the punishment, that the pardoning them cannot be a thing of course, as that would be to repeal the law, but that extraordinary and singular considerations are necessary to entitle the criminal to that remission. The information of the Post Master General marks such an habitual depravity of mind, as leaves little room to suppose that any facts can countervail it; and the robbery of the mail has now become so frequent and great an evil, that the moment is unfavorable to propositions of relaxation. Still I shall be ready to receive and consider any testimony in his favor, which his friends may bring forward, and will do it on whatever I may believe to have been the intention of the Legislature in confiding the power of pardon to the executive. The opinion of the judges who sat in the cause, I have ever required as indispensable to ground a pardon. A copy of the judgment is also necessary. I have taken the liberty of troubling you with these observations, because I have received no application but your letter, and lest, on the contrary supposition, his case might suffer for want of information. Accept my salutations and assurances of friendly esteem and respect.