1. Two of the submitted petitions, dated 13 June, are the same. One contains the signatures of 129 “Citizens of Philadelphia,” the other 103 signatures. The petitioners requested:

“That the sentence of death lately pronounced upon John Mitchell and Philip Weigel for high treason may not be carried into effect, and that for the following reasons.

“1. They both appear to have been misled by their less innocent neighbours, and probably believed that they were acting in a just cause.

“2. The total suppression of the late insurrection, and the terror and submission which have succeeded to the late opposition to the Laws of the United States, appear to render public examples of justice unnecessary at this time, with a view of preventing a repetition of similar acts of rebellion.

“3. The influence of Christian and Republican principles has lately rendered a belief almost universal throughout the United States, that the punishment of death is disproportioned to all crimes, except murder, Your petitioners therefore believe, that the feelings of a majority of the Citizens of the United States will revolt at the execution of the prisoners now under Sentence of death.

“4. Your petitioners further conceive, that the goodness of God in subduing by your influence, the late insurrection by a display only without the use of the military Sword, will be most gratefully and acceptably acknowledged, by a display only without the use of the Sword of the Law.

“Your petitioners cannot conclude without expressing a hope, that the exercise of Mercy upon this occasion will complete the circle of public and private Virtues which distinguish the conduct of the President of the United States” (both documents DS, DLC: Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion Collection; the petition with 103 signatures is the copy text).

A similar petition of the same date and filed next to the above documents was most likely submitted as well. It is signed by twenty individuals, including Helmuth and Hendel (DS, DLC: Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion Collection).

An undated petition signed by William McClure and eleven other men is docketed as included in the documents Helmuth and Hendel submitted to GW; therefore, it is given the same date. These petitioners noted that although they “feel an abhorrence against crimes, committed in violation of the peace and welfare of society, yet when an infringement of law appears to proceed more from a want of due information, than from a depravity of intention, your petitioners cannot avoid feeling interested for the fate of the unfortunate perpetrator. When an individual from situation in life is rendered dependent and subject to the controul of others commits an unlawful act, sympathy is apt to take place of justice and incline us to pity, when we might condemn. Actuated by sentiments of this nature your petitioners feel themselves constrained to present to your Consideration the unhappy situation of John Mitchel—a man of the lower class, who has gone astray more from a misplaced confidence in his superiors than from intentional opposition to law. Solely guided by the opinion of Characters whom he had been taught to revere did he act in that unjustifiable manner, which has brought upon him the sentence of the law. Were those by whose influence he was governed to suffer no good man who values the peace of society would murmur; but when a poor illiterate dependant man such as Mitchell has been induced by the designing to perpetrate a crime—we feel for him—and for his family” (DS, DLC: Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion Collection).