Rare Pardon Signed by Andrew Jackson as President and Martin Van Buren as Vice President
He shows clemency and orders release of a man imprisoned for being unable to pay an enormous fine and no means of ever paying it
This is our first ever Jackson pardon
The power to grant a pardon or cancel penalties and sentences is granted to the President of the United States by Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution; the only limits mentioned in the Constitution are that pardons are limited to federal...
This is our first ever Jackson pardon
The power to grant a pardon or cancel penalties and sentences is granted to the President of the United States by Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution; the only limits mentioned in the Constitution are that pardons are limited to federal offenses and that they cannot affect an impeachment. It states, “The president shall … have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.
President Andrew Jackson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the penalties or convictions of 386 people. This comes out to but four a month, so Jackson perused such requests carefully and did not issue them lightly. In the case of one David Hudson he clearly felt that justice and mercy required a commutation.
Document signed by Jackson as president and Van Buren as vice president, Washington, April 15, 1831, being a rare full pardon signed by both. In this case he clearly took the action because a massage fine equal to over a quarter of a million dollars today had been levied and the subject was imprisoned until he could pay it. He was poor, and this was tantamount to a life sentence. “Whereas a certain David Hudson was convicted at the May Term 1830 of the District Court of the United States for the District of Vermont and was sentenced to pay a fine of $8,000 and the costs of suit for violating the revenue laws of the United States, whereupon he was taken in execution and committed to prison where he still remains; and whereas it appears…that the said David Hudson is in very indigent circumstances and wholly unable to pay said fine and costs; and that he has a helpless family dependent upon his exertions for their support and maintenance; taking into consideration his long imprisonment, by which he has surely suffered for the offense committed by him, and the clear hopelessness of his ever being able to satisfy the penalty…In consideration of the premises, diverse good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, I Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America do hereby remit unto him the said David Hudson all the claims and interest of the United States to and in the said fine and costs, and order that he be liberated from further imprisonment…”
Archivally repaired at center fold. This is our first ever Jackson pardon.
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