The killing of Lull, Daniels and Whicher within a single week was
undoubtedly exasperating to the head of the Pinkerton agency, and had he
not been personally embittered thereby he probably would not have avenged
it so terribly.
In the next January, 1875, a posse of Pinkerton men and others, guided by
Daniel H. Asker, a neighbor of the James boys, proceeded to their home
near Kearney and threw a bomb into the house where the family was seated.
An eight-year-old half-brother of Frank and Jesse was killed, their
mother, Mrs. Samuels, had one arm torn off, and other members of the
family were more or less injured. But Frank and Jesse were not taken.
There had been a feeling among many people in the state even before that
these detectives were unjustly pursuing some of the Confederate soldiers,
and I have been told since that Gov. Silas Woodson was on the eve of
interfering with Pinkerton’s men when news came that two of them had been
killed in an encounter with John and Jim Younger.
At any rate the death of the innocent little Samuels boy made still more
pronounced this feeling against the operations of the detectives, and in
favor of the members of the Confederate army who had been outlawed by
Fremont, Halleck, Ewing and the Drake constitution, ungenerously, to say
the least.
This feeling found definite expression shortly after the raid on the
Samuels home in the introduction of a bill in the Missouri legislature
offering amnesty to the Younger and James brothers by name, and others who
had been outlawed with them by proclamation, from all their acts during
the war, and promising them a fair trial on any charge against them
arising after the war.
The bill was introduced in the house by the late General Jeff Jones, of
Callaway county, where my brothers and myself had many friends, and was,
in the main, as follows:
“Whereas, by the 4th section of the 11th article of the Constitution of
Missouri, all persons in the military service of the United States or who
acted under the authority thereof in this state, are relieved from all
civil liability and all criminal punishment for all acts done by them
since the 1st day of January, A.D. 1861; and,”
“Whereas, By the 12th section of the said 11th article of said
constitution provision is made by which, under certain circumstances, may
be seized, transported to, indicted, tried and punished in distant
counties, any confederate under ban of despotic displeasure, thereby
contravening the Constitution of the United States and every principle of
enlightened humanity; and,”
“Whereas, Such discrimination evinces a want of manly generosity and
statesmanship on the part of the party imposing, and of courage and
manhood on the part of the party submitting tamely thereto; and,”
“Whereas, Under the outlawry pronounced against Jesse W. James, Frank
James, Coleman Younger, James Younger and others, who gallantly periled
their lives and their all in defense of their principles, they are of
necessity made desperate, driven as they are from the fields of honest
industry, from their friends, their families, their homes and their
country, they can know no law but the law of self-preservation, nor can
have no respect for and feel no allegiance to a government which forces
them to the very acts it professes to deprecate, and then offers a bounty
for their apprehension, and arms foreign mercenaries with power to capture
and kill them; and,”
“Whereas, Believing these men too brave to be mean, too generous to be
revengeful, and too gallant and honorable to betray a friend or break a
promise; and believing further that most, if not all of the offenses with
which they are charged have been committed by others, and perhaps by those
pretending to hunt them, or by their confederates; that their names are
and have been used to divert suspicion from and thereby relieve the actual
perpetrators; that the return of these men to their homes and friends
would have the effect of greatly lessening crime in our state by turning
public attention to the real criminals, and that common justice, sound
policy and true statesmanship alike demand that amnesty should be extended
to all alike of both parties for all acts done or charged to have been
done during the war; therefore, be it”
“_Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring
therein,_ That the Governor of the state be, and he is hereby requested to
issue his proclamation notifying the said Jesse W. James, Frank James,
Coleman Younger, and James Younger and others, that full and complete
amnesty and pardon will be granted them for all acts charged or committed
by them during the late civil war, and inviting them peacefully to return
to their respective homes in this state and there quietly to remain,
submitting themselves to such proceedings as may be instituted against
them by the courts for all offenses charged to have been committed since
said war, promising and guaranteeing to each of them full protection and a
fair trial therein, and that full protection shall be given them from the
time of their entrance into the state and his notice thereof under said
proclamation and invitation.”
It was approved by Attorney-General Hockaday, favorably reported by a
majority of the committee on criminal jurisprudence, but while it was
pending Farmer Askew, who had piloted the detectives in their raid on the
Samuels residence, was called to his door at night and shot and killed by
unknown parties.
The bill was beaten, Democrats and Confederate soldiers voting against it.
For myself, the only charge against me was the unwarranted one of the
killing of young Judy during the war, but the failure of the bill left us
still under the ban of outlawry.