then let the facts be made
public, for I thought that my petitioners deserved public censure.
Whether they received this public censure or not I did not know, but
that my action made them very angry I do know, and their anger gave me
real satisfaction. The list of these petitioners was a fairly long one,
and included two United States Senators, a Governor of a State, two
judges, an editor, and some eminent lawyers and business men.

In the class of cases where the offense was one involving the misuse of
large sums of money the reason for the pressure was different. Cases of
this kind more frequently came before me when I was President, but they
also came before me when I was Governor, chiefly in the cases of county
treasurers who had embezzled funds. A big bank president, a railway
magnate, an official connected with some big corporation, or a
Government official in a responsible fiduciary position, necessarily
belongs among the men who have succeeded in life. This means that his
family are living in comfort, and perhaps luxury and refinement, and
that his sons and daughters have been well educated. In such a case
the misdeed of the father comes as a crushing disaster to the wife and
children, and the people of the community, however bitter originally
against the man, grow to feel the most intense sympathy for the
bowed-down women and children who suffer for the man's fault. It is
a dreadful thing in life that so much of atonement for wrong-doing
is vicarious. If it were possible in such a case to think only of the
banker's or county treasurer's wife and children, any man would pardon
the offender at once. Unfortunately, it is not right to think only of
the women and children. The very fact that in cases of this class there
is certain to be pressure from high sources, pressure sometimes by men
who have been beneficially, even though remotely, interested in the
man's criminality, no less than pressure because of honest sympathy with
the wife and children, makes it necessary that the good public servant
shall, no matter how deep his sympathy and regret, steel his heart and
do his duty by refusing to let the wrong-doer out. My experience of the
way in which pardons are often granted is one of the reasons why I
do not believe that life imprisonment for murder and rape is a proper
substitute for the death penalty. The average term of so-called life
imprisonment in this country is only about fourteen years.

Of course there