Remission for Aaron Jones, 15 December 1815
Remission for Aaron Jones
[15 December 1815]
Whereas it has been represented to me that Aaron Jones, of the County of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, was some time ago, charged with a misdemeanor, committed in the County of Alexandria, and that he has been duly convicted before the Circuit Court of the United States for the County aforesaid, in the District aforesaid, of the offence with which he was so charged, and, thereupon, was sentenced by the said Court to pay a pecuniary fine to the United States, and to be confined in Prison until he should satisfy the same; and whereas it has been made to appear to me that the said Aaron Jones has already undergone a rigorous confinement in prison, and that a still longer confinement, whilst it would be entirely unavailing, might involve the United States in much additional expense: Now, therefore, be it known, that I, James Madison, President of the United States, in consideration of the Premises, and for other good causes me thereunto moving, have remitted, and I do hereby remit the fine aforesaid, and every part thereof, willing and requiring that the said Aaron Jones be forthwith discharged from his Imprisonment.
[seal]
In Testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my Hand. Done at the City of Washington this fifteenth day of December AD 1815, & of the Independence of the United States the fortieth.
James Madison.
By the President
Jas. Monroe,
Secy. of State.
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, PPR). Jones’s petition to the judges of the circuit court in Alexandria, stated that he had “uniformly supported the character of an industrious, honest citizen, and altho’ convicted of an offence against the law, was inadvertently led into it by undertaking to keep a shop, an employment he has for some time relinquished, and has subsisted by his daily labour as a journeyman carpenter” and requested that the judges interpose with JM. This request was accompanied by a 28 Nov. 1815 letter bearing twelve signatures, testifying that Jones was unable to pay his fine and was a proper candidate for “Executive lenity.” This request was forwarded by judges William Cranch and Buckner Thruston to JM on 14 Dec. 1815 and was docketed by JM with the note “Let a pardon issue. J.M.” (DNA: RG 59, Petitions for Pardon, no. 309).