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Pardon for Benjamin Parkinson, 3 March 1797

Pardon for Benjamin Parkinson

[Philadelphia, 3 March 1797]

To all persons to whom these Presents shall come Greeting.

Whereas Benjamin Parkinson of the County of Washington in the State of Pennsylvania gentleman, now stands indicted of High-Treason committed within the said State—And whereas it is represented to me by David Lenox Esquire late Marshall of the District of Pennsylvania and others, that the Conduct of the said Benjamin Parkinson during the late insurrection was particularly humane and friendly to the said David Lenox and to Presly Neville Esquire then aiding and assisting the officers of government who by his interference were preserved from further personal outrage—And application hath been made to me in behalf of the said Benjamin Parkinson to grant to him a pardon of the said offence whereof he stands indicted1—Therefore I, George Washington, President of the United States in consideration of the premises have thought proper and these presents do grant unto the said Benjamin Parkinson a full free and entire pardon of the treason or treasons whereof he stands indicted: willing and requiring all prosecutions and judicial proceedings against him by reason thereof to be withdrawn and discharged.

Done at Philadelphia the third day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety seven and of the independence of the United States the twenty first. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed the same day and year.

Go: Washington
By the President, Timothy Pickering
Secretary of State

DS (facsimile), in Historical Magazine of Monongahela’s Old Home Coming Week: Sept. 6–13 1908, 96; LB, DNA: RG 59, Copies of Presidential Pardons and Remissions, 1794–1893; copy, DNA, RG 59, entry 690.

In another document, written on the same date from Philadelphia, GW pardoned ten other Whiskey insurgents who, like Parkinson, had been “indicted for High Treason committed” in the Pennsylvania district. The ten men pardoned by GW were Daniel Hamilton, William Miller, Richard Holcroft, Ebenezer Gallagher, William Hanna, Peter Lisle, David Locke, Alexander Fulton, Samuel Hanna, and Thomas Speers. GW’s decision to grant them amnesty stemmed from appeals he received “in their behalf setting forth their contrition for the past and assurances of their good behaviour in future.” Furthermore, GW’s “desire to temper the administration of justice with a reasonable extension of mercy” further prompted him to issue the pardons (DS, NNGL; LB, DNA: RG 59, Copies of Presidential Pardons and Remissions, 1794–1893). These men were among the Whiskey insurgents excepted from a general pardon offered by then-Virginia governor Henry Lee on 29 Nov. 1794, and later indicted for treason in May 1795 (see Alexander Hamilton to GW, 25 Oct. 1794, and n.1 to that document; Fulton to GW, October–November 1794; and Daniel Morgan to GW, December 1794). The exonerated insurgents had been associated with the attack on the home of John Nevill, inspector of the revenue, in mid-July 1794 (for that attack, see Henry Knox to GW, 26 July 1794, n.1). In a letter to Alexander Addison, the chief justice of Pennsylvania’s fifth district court, written on 24 Dec. 1794 from Philadelphia, U.S. district attorney William Rawle explained the reason for the exemption of several insurgents from Lee’s proclamation of pardon. He wrote: “William Miller, active at Neville’s … very contemptuous of the laws … of the United States. … Richard Holcroft set Neville’s house on fire. … William Hanna, atrocious conduct at Neville’s house; shot at General Neville” (Pa. Archives description begins Samuel Hazard et al., eds. Pennsylvania Archives. 9 ser., 138 vols. Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1949. description ends , 2d. ser., 4:500–2).

On 3 March, GW also issued a pardon to “Stephen Neilson, mariner,” who had “incurred a penalty of” $400 “by committing a breach of the revenue laws in Pennsylvania. Having been described as “fair and honest,” Neilson obtained a pardon from GW (LB, DNA: RG 59, Copies of Presidential Pardons and Remissions, 1794–1893; copy, DNA, RG 59, entry 690).

On 17 Sept. 1796, GW issued a pardon from Philadelphia for “a certain Robert Gedge otherwise called Robert Gage,” a mariner whose case had been brought before a district court of Pennsylvania. Gage had been charged “with having landed from on board a certain vessel called the Caron happage two bags of coffee the duties whereon had not been paid or secured according to law.” After learning of Gage’s good character, GW granted a remission of the $400 fine levied on him. GW ordered state officials to “discharge the said Robert Gage from custody on payment of the costs of prosecution” (LB, DNA: RG 59, Copies of Presidential Pardons and Remissions, 1794–1893).

1For David Lenox’s appeal on behalf of Parkinson, see his letter to GW of 3 June 1796. For Parkinson’s involvement in the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, in which he was described as one of the most dangerous participants, see Fulton to GW, October–November 1794, and n.8.

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