1

To his Excellency Samuel Houston;
Governor
in and over the State of Tennessee.

We your petitioners, citizens of Sumner County, fee^ling deep
solicitude for the reserve of a fellow being; and not feeling
it only, from that principle of our common nature; which
is ever prompt & ready, to save the sinking, but from a
thorough conviction that the punishment in reserve is widely
disproportioned to the offence. And this we assert; not that we
would wish your Excellency to depart from the line of duty,
the shortest distance; to gratify our excited benevolence; but ^we assert
it in the face of his condemnation; verily believing that there
is a disproportion between the impending punishment and the
alligated crime- in confirmation of facts, let circumstan=ces
be submitted to your candid mind.

James Nellums; the object of our anxiety, & we hope
of your Excellency's clemency, is convicted for the abduction
of three negroes, the property of Thomas P. Holeman
of Wilson county; for which offence; the 1^st Saturday
after the 4^th Monday in June is set apart for his
Execution