| Summary: | Letter from James Foster, a 68-year-old prisoner in Wetumpka, Alabama, to Governor W. J. Samford. In the letter Foster asks the governor to grant him parole. He acknowledges his guilt but argues that his good behavior makes him a worthy candidate for early release: "Its [sic] a parole I want, Governor. A parole with the conditions that I leave the state within 24 hours, never to return, else the parole to be forfeited with loss of short time on the 10 years I am now trying to do. Wouldn't it be to the best interest of the state, to have all ex-convicts to leave it?" He compares his situation to biblical characters who were forgiven: "King David, with all his advantages through life, with the spirit of Jehovah continually upon him, committed the capital crime of adultry [sic], and followed it with a cold blooded murder long before jack pots and moonshine whiskey was every invented, and, Jehovah, after inflicting a light punishment, pardoned him, and he became afterwards a great and good man...Who knows but what, with a sweet parole in my grasp, I may emulate some of the best of king David's life. I've made a good prisoner, and by the everlasting jupiter, I'll make a good citizen!" The letter was printed in the May 17 issue of The Montgomery Journal. Governor Samford died before replying to Foster's request, so Foster wrote Governor Jelks about the matter, too; the letter is also available online: https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/voices/id/3468
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