Lincoln Refuses to Commute Sentence of Execution for Slave Trading

This stunning document stands out among the papers of Abraham Lincoln, a man renowned for his mercy and willingness to pardon. His refusal to grant Nathaniel Gordon clemency for the crime of slave trading is a testament to Lincoln's growing public intolerance of slavery. While the president does not attack slavery in this document, his stern stance highlights that he is no longer the man who had recently promised never to interfere with slavery in the South. Within a year of Gordon's execution a whirlwind of anti-slavery measures were enacted including the abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C., the Confiscation Acts, and the Emancipation Proclamation.

Participation in the slave trade had been punishable by death since 1820, but Gordon was the first man to ever be executed for this crime. Between 1837 and 1860, seventy-four cases relating to the slave trade had been tried in the United States. But very few men were convicted, and even then received only light sentences. In November of 1861, Judge William Shipman not only convicted Gordon, but also sentenced him to hang. Gordon's friends and supporters approached Lincoln "to commute the said sentence of the said Nathaniel Gordon to a term of imprisonment for life." While he refuses this, Lincoln's compassionate nature is not completely deaf to Gordon's pleas for mercy. In this document, countersigned by William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Lincoln grants the prisoner a two week respite so that he can have "the necessary preparation for the awful change which awaits." Lincoln also bears full responsibility for ending this man's life and orders the "said day when the said sentence shall be executed."

Gordon attempted suicide with strychnine the morning of the execution, but failed. At noon on February 21, 1862, he was brought to the gallows. Both the death warrant and Lincoln's refusal to commute the sentence were read aloud, and then he was hanged. His execution was described in Harper's Weekly on March 8, 1862 (click here for a pdf version of the article).

References: Hugh Thomas, The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870 (New York, 1997). Harpers Weekly, "The Execution of Gordon, The Slave-Trader" Vol. 2, No. 271, p. 150. (i11. p. 157) 8 March 1862 (GLC 1733).

GLC00182 Abraham Lincoln Respite of Execution. Document signed. Washington, D.C. : 4 February 1862. 41 x 27 cm.

For more information or to obtain copies, contact Ana Ramirez-Luhrs at reference@gilderlehrman.com or call (212) 787-6616 ext. 209.

Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States of America.

To all to whom these Presents shall come Greeting:

Whereas, it appears that at a Term of the Circuit Court of the United States of America for the Southern District of New York held in the month of November A.D. 1861, Nathaniel Gordon was indicted and convicted for being engaged in the Slave Trade, and was by the said Court sentenced to be put to death by hanging by the neck, on Friday the 7th day of February, A.D. 1862;

And whereas, a large number of respectable citizens have earnestly besought me to commute the said sentence of the said Nathaniel Gordon to a term of imprisonment for life, which application I have felt it to be my duty to refuse;

And whereas, it has seemed to me probable that the unsuccessful application made for the commutation of his sentence may have prevented the said Nathaniel [2] Gordon from making the necessary preparation for the awful change which awaits him;

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, have granted and do hereby grant unto him, the said Nathaniel Gordon, a respite of the above recited sentence, until Friday the twenty first day of February, A.D. 1862, between the hours of twelve o'clock at noon and three o'clock in the afternoon of the said day when the said sentence shall be executed.

In granting this respite, it becomes my painful duty to admonish the prisoner that, relinquishing all expectation of pardon by Human Authority, he refer himself alone to the mercy of the Common God and Father of all men.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington [3] this Fourth day of February A.D. 1862, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty sixth.

Abraham Lincoln

By the President

William H. Seward
Secretary of State

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