ll meaning, too, but unfortunate, was the declaration of Missouri
friends in Minnesota that they could raise $100,000 to get us out of
Stillwater.

But as the years went by, the popular feeling against us not only
subsided, but our absolute submission to the minutest details of prison
discipline won for us the consideration, I might even say the high esteem
of the prison officials who came in contact with us, and as the Northfield
tragedy became more and more remote, those who favored our pardon became
more numerous, and yearly numbered in their ranks more and more of the
influential people of the state, who believed that our crime had been
avenged, and that Jim and I, the only survivors of the tragedy, would be
worthy citizens if restored to freedom.

My Missouri friends are surprised to find that I prize friendships in
Minnesota, a state where I found so much trouble, but in spite of
Northfield, and all its tragic memories, I have in Minnesota some of the
best friends a man ever had on earth.

Every governor of Minnesota from as early as 1889 down to 1899 was
petitioned for our pardon, but not one of them was satisfied of the
advisability of a full pardon, and the parole system provided by the
enlightened humanitarianism of the state for other convicts did not apply
to lifers.

Under this system a convict whose prison record is good may be paroled on
his good behavior after serving half of the term for which he was
sentenced.

The reiterated requests for our pardon, coming from men the governors had
confidence in, urging them to a pardon they were reluctant to grant, led
to a feeling, which found expression finally in official circles, that the
responsibility of the pardoning power should be divided by the creation of
a board of pardons as existed in some other states.

It was at first proposed that the board should consist of the governor,
attorney general and the warden of the prison, but before the bill passed,
Senator Allen J. Greer secured the substitution for the chief justice for
the warden, boasting, when the amendment was made:

"That ties the Youngers up for as long as Chief Justice Start lives."

A unanimous vote of the board was required to grant a pardon, and as Chief
Justice Start had lived in the vicinity of Northfield at the time of the
raid in 1876, many people believed that he would never consent to our
pardon.

In the legislature of 1889, our friends endeavored to have the parole
system e