OCR Text |
Show BANKER BACON PARDONED. C?r.litf In 18U6 and Senteocsdto Seven Years. Washington. Dec. 22. The president bs granted a. full pardon to James H. Bacon, who was convicted in 1S96 and sentenced to imprisonment for seven years in the Utah penitentiary for making mak-ing a false report to the comptroller of the currency of the condition of the National Bank of Salt Lake, Utah, of which he was president. The method of making the report, it is asserted by the comptroller of the currency, Dawes, and his predecessor, was well nigh universal uni-versal among banks, fandiwas well understood un-derstood by the department, and until this time had not been the subject of official complaint. They both state that in their judgment Bacon was Innocent In-nocent of any moral wrong, and that he ought not to have been convicted. Attorney-general Griggs in reviewing the case, says the evidence did not warrant a finding of guilty. Attorney-General Griggs, in his report re-port to the president on the case, said: 'It would be most unjust to visit upon the petitioner the severe penalty pronounced by the statute upon offenders offend-ers against the national banking law for a mere failure to follow strictly a purely technical detail such as this was. I advise that the petitioner be granted a pardon." Mr. Bacon has never suffered impris-; impris-; onment, his case having but recently been passed upon by the United States Supreme Court. Under its deciaion he would have had to go to prison next month, but for the pardon. |