Enclosure: Memorial from Oliver Hartshorn, 8 June 1795
Enclosure
Memorial from Oliver Hartshorn
[8 June 1795]
To the Honorable the Justices of the Circuit Court of the United States held for and within the District of Massachusetts on the eighth day of June 1795.
Humbly shews—Oliver Hartshorn of Boston in said District, Deputy Sheriff and under keeper of the Goal in Boston in said District, that by a law of the State of Massachusetts, he has been directed to take the custody of prisoners committed under the authority of the United States, but no adequate provision hath been made for their maintenance and support1—That the State, he presumes, has neglected to make such provision, presuming that the United States would adopt some measure for that purpose.
Your petitioner has hitherto, at his own expence, maintained the prisoners committed under the authority of the United States, relying that a due compensation would eventually be made—He therefore prays this Honorable Court to take this subject into consideration and grant such a recommendation to Congress of the merits of his claim as to your Honors may seem meet—and as in duty bound will pray.
Oliver Hartshorn
Prisoners hitherto committed under the authority of the United States—Samu[e]1 Rogers, committed Septr 6. 1794 and discharged Feby 18. 1795. under sentence of the Circuit Court. 23 weeks & four days. Joseph Hood, committed March 5th 1795—now confined.2 The prisoners who are committed under the authority off the State, your petitioner is allowed 10/ pr week for.
The foregoing are true copies
Att[es]t N. Goodale3 Clerk
Copy, DNA: RG 46, Fourth Congress, Records of Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages. The document is certified as a “True copy” by State Department clerk George Taylor, Jr.
1. Hartshorn was referring to “An Act to provide for the safe Keeping all Prisoners committed under the Authority of the United States in the several Goals within this Commonwealth,” 26 Feb. 1790 (, p. 47).
2. For the case of Samuel Rogers, see Edmund Randolph to GW, 4 Nov. 1794, n.1. Joseph Hood, convicted of manslaughter on the high seas, had received a sentence of eighteen months and a fine of $500. GW pardoned Hood on 2 Jan. 1796. In doing so, the president asserted that the prisoner had sent a petition to him for a remission of the sentence because “he has already sustained an imprisonment of many months before his trial and hath an aged mother to maintain.” GW certified Hood’s “character and conduct” as “otherwise fair and honest” (LB, DNA: RG 59, Copies of Presidential Pardons and Remissions, 1794–1893; copy, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
3. Nathan Goodale (1741–1806) graduated from Harvard College in 1759 and was a merchant at Salem before being appointed clerk of the Massachusetts District Court in 1789.