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LS as an Ohio congressman, signed “J. A. Garfield,” one page both sides, 7.5 x 9.5, House of Representatives letterhead, January 25, 1879. Handwritten letter to Captain A. W. Stiles of Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio, in full: “Yours of the 22nd is received. I called on the Attorney General a few days ago to see what had been done in Thompson's case. I filed the papers asking for his pardon very soon after I came here. The Attorney General sent them to General Lee for examination and has received Lee's report. Lee goes over the case and says among other things that in addition to the $100 received from one party Thompson took a promissory note for $100 from a different party and that he had agreed to plead guilty on one indictment provided the other was nolle.
Lee very strongly opposes Thompson's pardon and the Attorney General refuses to recommend the pardon on the ground that Lee has reported against it. I then went to the President and stated the case, reminding him that Thompson was an officer in his regiment. The President telegraphed to Lee requesting him to suspend further action in the case until it could be more fully considered. I do not know of anything else that can be done here, but the President will doubtless hear directly from Lee in answer to his telegram. I should say to you that the President's telegram to Lee was confidential and should not be mentioned.” In fine condition, with a short split to the central horizontal fold.
Written during Rutherford B. Hayes's administration, this letter finds Congressman James A. Garfield actively advocating for a pardon application on behalf of a former Civil War officer named Thompson. Garfield reports that Attorney General Charles Devens had referred the matter to General Lee for review, whose unfavorable report led the Justice Department to oppose clemency. Undeterred, Garfield personally presented the case to President Hayes, reminding him that Thompson had served as an officer in his regiment during the Civil War. Garfield notes that Hayes subsequently telegraphed Lee requesting that further action be suspended pending additional consideration, but cautions that the president's intervention was "confidential and should not be mentioned." The letter, which offers a glimpse into the presidential pardon process and the importance of post-Civil War relationships, was written just sixteen months before Garfield's nomination for the presidency at the 1880 Republican National Convention.
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