1

His Excellency Joseph M^cMinn
Governor of the State of Tennessee

The petition of the undersigned respectfully represent
To Your Excellency
that at this present Term of the
Circuit Court of Law for Greene County a certain James M^cGill charged with the commission of Simple Larceny
was tried & convicted thereof and as part of his sentence
was ordered to be taken to the public whipping post on
the 2^nd day of October next and there receive five lashes
on his bare back
which sentence, although unavoidable
from the proof of yet we [your? ?] for the following
reasons would earnestly solicit Executive interfereance [sic]
1^st and principally from the [tender?] years of the culp=
prits, his age being about fifteen or sixteen years. -
2^nd that this is the only charge that has been ever made
against him and that his character is as good as most
of the other poor boys in the neighbourhood
3. he was hired to a Mr. Coatney to labor for him
one year that he ran off and took with him a coat
pantaloons and shoes of common quality, belonging to
Fielding Coatney the son of the man with whom he
was hired that on the Sunday before he ran off and
took said cloathes [sic] for which he is convicted the pantaloons
^being one garment of which he as convicted for stealing had been loaned
To him to wear and which he returned on sunday
morning.
we your petitioners therefore pray your Excellency
to extend pardon to the said James so far as relates to
corporal punishment which if granted we request