The great lawyer was very stern as he faced his Chief:
"I regret to say it, Mr. President, but you are not fit to be trusted with the pardoning power, sir!"
A smile played about the corner of the big kindly mouth as he glanced over his spectacles at his Attorney General:
"It's my private opinion, Bates, that you're just as pigeon-hearted as I am!"
Judge Advocate General Holt was sent to labor with him and insist that he enforce the law imposing the death penalty.
"Your reasons are good, Holt," he answered kindly, "but I can't promise to do it. You see, so many of my boys have to be shot anyhow. I don't want to add another one to that lot if I can help it——"
He paused and went on whimsically:
"I don't see how it's going to make a man better to shoot him, anyhow—give them another trial."
In spite of all Holt's protests he steadfastly refused to sanction any death warrant against a man for cowardice under fire. "Many a man," he calmly argued, "who honestly tries to do his duty is overcome by fear greater than his will—I'm not at all sure how I'd act if Minie balls were whistling and those big shells shrieking in my ears. How can a poor man help it if his legs just carry him away?"
All these he marked "leg cases," put them in a separate pigeon hole and always suspended their sentence.