The Interior Journal

F. F. Bobbitt spoke at Lebanon, last Monday, to a large audience. A synopsis of his speech is given in the Courier-Journal, from which we copy his remarks concerning the wholesale pardoning by Gov. Blackburn. He said that 'the pardoning power was incorporated in the State Constitution to relieve against hardships, and was to be cautiously and sparingly used. He was much opposed to the wholesale manner of turning criminals loose upon the country, and said that the people all over the State should hold indignation meetings to condemn the action of the Governor. He said the people were taxed to death to pay judges, commonwealth's attorneys, jurors and witnesses to send convicts to the penitentiary, and some of them never entered the portals of the penitentiary before the Governor pardoned them. He said by the law a boy of seven years of age could be convicted and hanged for murder, and that Blackburn overrode the law when he said no boy under 14 should be confined in the penitentiary. His remarks on Blackburn for pardoning pregnant women were very amusing, and showed that it offered inducements to privilege one crime by another. He said the pardoning power had not been properly exercised. He said the blood-stained murderer, red with human gore, the incendiary who applied the flaming torch to the sleeping man's dwelling, the thief that stole the honest man's property while he slept, the forger and the rapist who had blighted forever female honor, had all shared in the sympathy of this humane Governor. The applause showed that the feelings of the people were with the speaker, and we think it high time that the Governor should call a halt in this matter.'