1

MC 2-4

To His Excellency Joseph McMinn Governor of the
State of Tennessee. We your petitionersof the County of Wilson being aware of
a petition forwarded to your Excellency in favour of a
reprieve for Charles L. Bennet who now stands sentenced
for death for the murder of William T. Hay pray
for a non compliance. Our reason for so doing
we wish your Excellency to be in full possession of
it. 1st We conceive that if a petition of that kind is
in existance it should have originated in the neigh
=bourhood where the murder was committed and not
in an adjoining county ^ or an extreme part of our own county where the people are
less informed of the transactions attending it. We
therefore consider the petition now forwarded to be
done in a clandestine manner.
2nd As the county of Wilson only, is liable for the
expenses of said prisoners confinement, and removeal
from one county to another as he have thought
proper to change the venue, we think that the
citizens of Wilson county only ought to be signers
to a petition for or against the prisoner.
3rd We believe that a large majority of the citizens
of our county are n favor of said Bennets Execution
agreeable to his sentence and we have great reason