Thursday, 1st July 1915: Slaton Defends State In New York Papers, The Atlanta Journal

### Ex-Governor Says He Asks No Praise for Doing His Duty

All of the New York papers of Wednesday carry stories about the arrival in that city of former Governor John M. Slaton and Mrs. Slaton. All of the papers carry interviews with the ex-Governor, the substance of which is the same. The following is from The New York World:

"I don't want any praise for having commuted Frank's sentence," said Mr. Slaton. "If you'd compliment me for a speech I'd made, I'd feel flattered. Or if you told me that I'd designed a nice house or laid out a beautiful garden I'd be pleased. But if you were to leave $10,000 on a table in a room where I was alone, and then laud me for not stealing it, I wouldn't feel particularly complimented."

"I might have lost a couple of nights' sleep enjoying the adulation of the mob had I allowed Frank to go to the gallows, but I wouldn't have had a comfortable night's sleep after that for the next forty years, if I live that long."

Mr. Slaton is a fine, big, upstanding Southerner. He is forty-eight years old. Mrs. Slaton, still in her thirties, accompanies him. After a few days of sight-seeing about this city, they are going to Sacandaga, N.Y., to be the guests of Mr. and Mrs. L. Ledlie Hees. After that, they will go to Seattle, then to the exposition at San Francisco and then back to Atlanta, where the former Governor will resume his practice of law.

He told an interesting story of how he first let it be known that he was going to save Frank's life. He and Mrs. Slaton were in their library at 3 o'clock on a Sunday morning. He had been deliberating for hours. He turned to his wife and said: "Dear, my conscience and my mind will not allow me to send that man to the gallows. It may mean my own life, and it probably will mean my political life if I commute him, but I'm going to do it. What do you say?"

Mrs. Slaton (Sallie Grant, she was, granddaughter of old Governor James Jackson, of Georgia, who fought six or eight duels) didn't hesitate. She replied instantly, putting her arms about him: "All right, Jack, never mind the consequences, let's commute."

The ex-Governor isn't sure that his political career has ended, after all. It is no secret that his ambition for years has been to be the United States Senator from Georgia. The World's reporter asked him: "Will you be a candidate for that office at the next election, Governor?" "If the people want me and if Mrs. Slaton lets me," he replied.

"Here's one thing I wish the North to know," he said. "I don't slip out of Atlanta, or sneak away. Within a couple of days after my decision caused all the excitement I was walking about the streets as usual. I have nothing to fear."

"Another thing I'd like to have known is this. Many good people of Georgia, for whom I have the greatest respect, disapproved of my action in all sincerity because of their very respect for the courts and law. But they did not realize that only one of the many judges who passed on the case had a right to grant a new trial"Judge Roan, who passed sentence on Frank."

"Judge Roan realized that he made a mistake. He wrote to me and begged me to commute the sentence."

Mr. and Mrs. Slaton are staying at the Waldorf. They attracted a great amount of attention when their identity became known.