Historical Pardon

* Talking about presidential pardons, I would like to share this family recollection about how Abraham Lincoln considered and granted one.

My great-grandfather John Dodge, of Hampton Falls, N.H., along with being a whaling fleet part-owner, sea captain, innkeeper and state legislator, was also an attorney practicing law in Boston.

There is a place in his diary where he recounts the following event. He had gone down to Washington to see President Lincoln to plead for the life of an 18-year-old boy from Seabrook who was to be shot for falling asleep on watch. The two men met for half an hour or so, alone in a private room, briefly discussing the case but also, at greater length, swapping humorous stories. At the end, my great-grandfather asked Lincoln what he would do about the boy, and Lincoln signified with a wave of his hand that all would be well, and so it was.

PHILIP WALKER

Santa Barbara