Mr. Adams to Lord Stanley
My Lord: I have the honor to transmit to your lordship a memorandum addressed to the consul of the United States at Manchester, signed E. Shore, one of the persons now condemned to be executed for a criminal offence committed at that place.
This man claims to be a naturalized citizen of the United States. I am well aware that this furnishes no reason for official interposition in a case like this, of a gross violation of the laws of the kingdom. Neither is it my intention, in submitting this paper, to be understood as entertaining an intention to claim any right whatever to do so. It has appeared to me, however, on a review of the evidence presented on the trial, that the allegation of this prisoner, that he has suffered unduly from the fact of his association in the indictment with the other parties, is sufficiently sustained to justify me in calling your lordship’s attention, for a moment, to his summary of the facts. T am very sure that it is not the intention either of her Majesty’s tribunals, or of the government, to inflict upon any offender a penalty which may prove to have been more severe than he deserved, especially when that penalty be the taking of life. Having, therefore, the utmost confidence in the calmness and impartiality with which the entire testimony, as applied to this particular case, will be examined by those to whom the duty is committed, I shall not attempt to add a word in the way of argument. It is sufficient that I shall have done what, under the circumstances, seemed to be due to the prisoner, in giving him the benefit of the doubts with which the severity of his sentence appears to me to be accompanied.
I pray your lordship to accept, &c, &c,
Right Honorable Lord Stanley, &c., &c., &c.