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 ^/UO «J>> 
 

 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 FRANCIS O. J. SMITH, 
 
 Representative in Congress from Cumberland District, (Me.) 
 
 BEING A DEFENCE OF THE WRITER AGAINST THE ATTACKS 
 MADE ON HIM BY THAT INDIVIDUAL— AND 
 
 A (SKETCH 
 
 OP 
 
 MR. SMITH'S POLITICAL LIFE. 
 
 BY H. W. GREENE, 
 
 LATE EDITOR OF THE EASTERX ARGUS. 
 
 1839. 
 
It ^ i^ 
 

 LETTER NO. I. 
 
 Concord, N. H., Jan. 28, 1839. 
 To Francis O. J. Smith, M. C. from Maine. 
 
 Sir:— A friend forwarded to me, soon after its publication, a 
 copy of the late Frankfort Intelligencer,* which contained a Letter 
 signed by you, and addressed ''To the Electors of Maine." I am 
 not at all surprised at this convulsive effort of yours to raise yourself 
 from that dead oblivion into which you have been cast, by a series 
 of acts of political baseness and treachery, unparalelled in the his- 
 tory of any other man of your limited pretensions, and who, like 
 you, came into notice as a political pauper, and will go out of power 
 an ingrate— an exposed, despairing and despised demagogue. That 
 effort would, however, have been passed unnoticed by me,— as it 
 will unregarded by those to whom it is addressed — had you not 
 seen fit to introduce my name and business into it, and by sundry 
 positive, direct, palpable, and known falsehoods, sought to create in 
 the minds of those who are unacquainted with the thorough baseness 
 of your character, a suspicion that I have treated you with ''in- 
 gratitude " — the very part you have sustained towards those who 
 rescued you from obscurity, only to be requited for the service in a 
 manner to convince the most doubting, that there is such a thing as 
 total political depravity. 
 
 The number and malignity of the falsehoods relating to me, con- 
 tained in your letter, and the importance you may be supposed to 
 derive from the position which you occupy before the country, in- 
 duce me to employ the first leisure moments I have been able to 
 command since the appearance of your letter, in exposing its base- 
 ness, and in branding bone-deep upon your forehead, if the records 
 of infamy already written there have left space sufficient, a word 
 which I would never use in acontroversy with a gentleman — the word 
 LIAR ! But I am too fast — the brand is already there — faithfully 
 impressed by the hand of a colleague — I have only to brush away 
 other disgraceful records to show it in bold relict" — and in so doing, 
 it is not improbable I may also unveil tho "SCOUNDREL and 
 COWARD " which accompanied it, 
 
 •The paper expired with the publication of Mr. Smith's letter. 
 
Your attack ii]ioii iiic was a I'urlhian arroiu. Although you dated 
 it at Portland, you were considerate enough to put hundreds ot' 
 miles between us before it was pcrnmted to see the light. Perhaps 
 it is fortunate for both of us that you did so— for, had it been other- 
 wise, I might, in the indignation of the moment, have forgotten the 
 abject degradation in which you revel with a surprising congeniali- 
 ty of feeling, anil have inflicted a chastisement which, while it icould 
 have humiliated me by the force of contact, could not have dis- 
 graced YOU — for, having consented to sit in the Hall of Congress, 
 while its wails, and the desks of its members, were covered with 
 placards pronouncing you to be, ^' most emphatically, a LIAR, a 
 SCOUNDREL, and a COWARD," it would be the height of pre- 
 sumption to suppose that you could be farther disgraced in the esti- 
 mation of those, who, willing to admit that the epithets tcere a little 
 in advance of public opinion, have long been convinced that they 
 were faithfully earned and richly deserved. 
 
 And here permit me to observe, that in addressing you these let- 
 ters, and in showing to the public how little deserving you are of 
 the respect or confidence of honorable men, I indulge no hope of 
 producing any reformation in your character — and I should have 
 despaired of even reaching your feelings with any weapon more 
 intellectual than a cowskin, had not the fact that you have, within 
 a few months, by the institution of two suits for libels on your 
 character, afforded reason to hope that you may not be found to be 
 entirely dead to all consciousness of shame. 
 
 In order that the reader may appreciate to its full extent, the 
 character of your attack upon me, I give an extract embracing all 
 its material parts. In speaking of the Editor of the Augusta Age 
 and myself, you say : — 
 
 " And to aggravate tiie baseness of their inconsistency in this 
 matter, and toTiiark them more elicctually for i)ublic scorn, as cou- 
 victs of hateful in>:;ratitude, the man who is most abused, person- 
 ally, l)y them in their war upon the credit and banking systems of 
 the country, is no other than the man who has extended to each of 
 them the first and most important credit and loan of caj)ital that 
 thev have had in their lives, whoreuilh to commence business in the 
 woild, upon a resjjectable footing and in their own names. In- 
 credible as it may seem from the tone of those two papers towards 
 me, I am, in truth, that ill-rcquitcd lienefactor of these heartless 
 men. The former, H. W. Greene, of the Argus, may triilv be sai.l 
 to have never brought into this State the amount ol five dollars ot 
 capital. Every dollar he purchased in the Eastern Argus when 
 he came into "the State, li<- i)urchused upon an extended credit ot 
 more than two years; and it was of myself that he sought, and 
 of me that he received every dollar of that credit! Nay. dunng 
 the moiiihs in which he has bpen abusing me in the Argus, and 
 while I was both absent from the counliy and alike ignorant ot both 
 his abuse and its shallow pr«tc.\t, he was feeding himself, and his 
 iainily, and iransactinz his whole business, upon tiie resources of a 
 
ra|)ital thus souixht of mo, ami thus cxtciulcil tu him liy mc. by 
 credit, whereof nCt a dolhir, not t'vt'ii tlie current iDtt-rcst of it, liad 
 been repaid! And when on lliu first (hiy of Septcndjcr last, th(! 
 notes he was owinjj ine for the capital tiius ailvanced became iluc, 
 having run without payment since July 183G, so far from this rex il- 
 er of the credit systoni and of banks beiiifr able to live u|>on Ihe 
 specie system of no credits and of doicn ivilh (dl hanks, to which all 
 his professions lead, not twenty-tivo cents on the dollar of my notes 
 could he pay, but he again threw himself n|)on both the credit and 
 the banUingsvstem for further help, and sought and obtained of the 
 Bank where n'ly notes were dcftosited, a renewed indulgence ! What 
 comment xtpon such a character — upon a tnan thus depending in 
 private for his daily bread upon the very class and sources of in- 
 dulgences at which he was constantly railing in venom before the 
 public and to his party — what comment, upon such a character, to 
 an intelligent i)eople, is it necessary for any one to make, to have 
 him despised as thoroughly as his worst enemy could wish ; I re- 
 gret profoundly the neX-essity of exposing thus to the world how 
 despicable is the character and conduct of the man with w horn my 
 old republican coadjutors in this State have been associated for the 
 Jast two years." 
 
 I am constrained to say that there is hardly a word of truth in 
 the whole of this statement, so fiir as it relates to me. It is false as 
 a whole, and false in detail— false in letter, and false in spirit— in 
 fine, as false as your own black heart, and more emphatically false 
 words could not describe it. You were never my ''benefactor'' — 
 never even my friend, after you found I would not be your tool. — 
 You became my bitter enemy w^ithin a fortnight after I took charge 
 of the Argus, because 1 refused to publish an article, written by 
 yourself, in ichich you were puffed to the skies. I refused because I 
 did not think half as well of you as you professed to think of your- 
 self— (I say "professed'' because, knowing your own character, you 
 could not have been sincere in your self-laudation,) and because I 
 despised you for the indecent zeal with which you sought to sound 
 your own praise. From that moment, as I have already observed, 
 you became my enemy; and, upon your avowed principle of never 
 forgiving an injury, real or imaginary, you have continued so to the 
 present day, without a w ish or an effort, on my part, for you to 
 change your position. I have lU ways considered it a fortunate cir- 
 cumstance for me, that you made this early attempt to use me as a 
 tool. It not only created in my mind so strong a suspicion that you 
 were the corrupt and unprincipled demagogue which you have since 
 proved yourself to be, that I resolved on the instant never to put 
 myself in your power by confiding in your integrity — but it also in- 
 duced me, for my own satisfaction, to institute a rigid investigation 
 of your career — and, before I am done, you will concede that I 
 prosecuted that investigation with considerable industry and abuiid- 
 ant success. But to your charges. 
 
Thrown u[iui» my own resources M im early age, with nothiiij 
 to depend oil but my head and handj, it Ls true thai 1 had but little 
 pecuniary capital when I became a citizen of Maine. I had not, as 
 you have, — the fruits of successful fraud. I had, however, that 
 wliicli you, sir, cannot boast, the confidence and esteem of a large 
 circle of personal and political friends, not one of whom ever taxed 
 me with treachery or ingratitude. 1 purchased an interest in the 
 Eastern Argus, and made an engagement to take charge of that 
 paper, not only without your aid, but also without your knowledge. 
 My compensation was agreed on before I ever exchanged a word 
 with you, verbally or by letter. That compensation depended in 
 no way upon the small interest I subsequently purchased of you — 
 and having sold that interest for precisely the sum I gave you for it, 
 / never was benefited by that purchase a single dollar. I deem my- 
 self fortunate in being able to say that I never had but one pecuniary 
 transaction with you, and that that was of a character which afforded 
 you no opportunity to swindle me. In exchange for the property 
 referred to, I gave you two notes, on one of which 1 was promisor 
 and on the other endorser, both of which were payable on the 1st 
 of September, 1838. Long before that time, however, that unfin- 
 ished monument of your folly and vanity, the "JVestbrook Palace," 
 with its "servants^ Hall," and other evidences of mushroom aris- 
 tocracy — your gigantic speculations in Western lands, made at the 
 expense of your constituents — in short, the necessities of one who, 
 by the aid of a "credit system," leaped at a bound 'from a single 
 shirt and shank^s mare," to an elegant span of blood greys, an im- 
 ported carriage with a hammar cloth fringed with silk and gold, 
 and a black servant who, the humble constituents of this great man 
 were tolJ, was ''the body servant of John Quincy Adams at the 
 Court of St. James" — these causes, 1 say, compelled you to part 
 with the notes in question, soon after they were given. You "de- 
 posited" them at the Bank of Westbrook as collateral security, and 
 they were soon after discounted for your benefit, and to pay i)aper 
 which you did not find it convenient to provide for in any other way.* 
 
 •To show how regardless of truth you are, and how well you merit 
 the first of your three Congressional degrees, (L. S. C.) I submit 
 the following statement, which has been obtained since the body of 
 this letter was written, with the simple remark that with the ex- 
 ception of a single note for $150, not yet due, no individual or insti- 
 tution in Maine, holds my |)a])er for a dollar, while there are men 
 in that State who would give hundreds of dollars if you could say 
 as much. 
 
 "In behalf of !I. ^V. Greene, I this day callcci upon Dr. C. C. 
 
Tliis is the only pecuniiiry transaction I evor had with you. If it 
 can be construed into a " loan of capital^' to me, it must be confess- 
 ed that you were very speedily repaid. You could not even wait 
 until my notes were due. Your necessities, Sir, notwithstanding 
 your boasts of extended aid, uvre quite loo pressing for that. It was 
 me who furnished you with capital, for I bought property of you 
 which you could not readily convert into money, and gave you notes 
 on which you raised the cash. And yet you have the assurance to 
 prate to me of " empty pockets " — you, whose "right, title, interest, 
 estate, claim and demand of every name and nature'^ had been for 
 months, as the records of the County show, under attachment on a 
 demand of $13,000 ! ! You, writhing in the clutches of the Sheriff, 
 and prating to me of " empty pockets ! " 
 
 As to " obligations, " Sir, they rest on you, not on tnc. But for 
 e.xtraordinary exertions on my part — (for which I most devoutly 
 pray to be forgiven) — you would not now occupy the seat which you 
 disgrace, and to which you cling with a pertinacity increased by the 
 neglect and contempt with which you are treated by those around 
 you. You are " the most despised man at Washington,^'' consider- 
 ing the smallness of your calibre — and although you know it and 
 feel it, you have not decency enough to rid those who despise you, of 
 your presence. When I took charge of the Argus you were the 
 candidate of the party for Congress, and there was no alternative 
 
 Tobie, Cashier of the Bank of Westbrook, and upon inquiry was 
 informed by him, that a note of hand, signed by H. W. Greene, 
 payable to Nathaniel Greene, fell due on the 1st, 4th, September, 
 A. D. 18S8 — that the said note was on interest, and that on the day 
 jt fell due, there was due on the said note with interest added, the 
 sum of Thirteen Hundred Twenty-three Dollars and six cents — 
 that when the said note fell due, it was promptly paid and taken up 
 by the said H. W. Greene, and that thesaid note had been previous- 
 ly discounted at said Bank. That when the said note w as taken up, 
 another note, signed by Ira Berry, payable to H. W. Greene, and 
 endorsed by said H. W. Greene, which fell due on the same 1st, 4th, 
 Sept. A. D. 1838, and which, with the interest added, amounted to 
 the sum of Six Hundred Sixty-one Dollars, fifty-three cents, and 
 which had been discounted at said Bank, was promptly paid and taken 
 up by said H. W. Greene. That these w-ere the only pieces of 
 paper security upon which H. W. Greene's name appeared as prom- 
 isor or endorser, that were ever negotiated at said Bank, or that were 
 ever deposited in said Bank, for the benefit of Francis O. J. Smith, 
 to his, the said Tobic's knowledge. 
 
 And in conversation with Samuel .Jordan, Esq., President of said 
 Bank, 1 was informed by said Jordan, that the two notes above re- 
 ferred to, WERE DISCOUNTED AT SAID BaNK FOR THE BENEFIT OF F. 
 
 O. J. SMITH. For the correctness of the above statements, 1 have 
 permission to refer to the gentlemen, Mr. Jordan, and Dr. Tobie. 
 
 AUGUSTINE HAINES. 
 February 2d, 1839. 
 
8 
 
 but for me to give you my support. I did so — and you have the 
 same reason to charge me with "iiigratitude'' that tlie felon had 
 for cursing his parents for lear?iin^ him to icriie, when he was about 
 to be executed for forgery : — if I had not aided you to your present 
 position you could never have fallen as you have. Before you talk 
 to me of " obligations, " you should reflect that at that period you 
 were so completely in my power, that a single paragraph from my 
 pen would have blasted all your political hopes, and consigned you 
 to private life, "umvept, unhonored, and unsung.'" 
 
 Your assertion that I '^fed my family, " and '' transacted my busi- 
 ness^' on capital sought and obtained of you, can only excite a 
 smile of derision in the minds of those who know the circumstances 
 of us both. Well as 1 love my family, if I thought it was indebted 
 for its bread to you, I should beseech its members to eat sparingly, 
 and to owe as little as possible to one who never cherished a benevo- 
 lent feeling or performed a generous act, and who, when he seemed 
 to do so — if, indeed, you ever did so seem — was but cloaking the 
 ])Ians of a mean and sordid spirit. 
 
 As to " character, " Sir, you must excuse me for declining to de- 
 fend mine from your assaults. Where I am known, you cannot 
 harm me — where I am not, and you are, the infamy of my assailant 
 will protect me — where neither of us are known, this correspondence 
 will not be likely to penetrate. During a life which has not been 
 without its trials and adversities, I defy you to find a dishonest or u 
 dishonorable act. I have never stabbed under the guise of friend- 
 ship. 1 have never defrauded my friends of their rights or their 
 pro[)erty — nor have I ever been posted as ^'-most emphatically a 
 r.IAR, a SCOUNDREL, and a COWARD " and submitted to it 
 from a consciousness of its truth. Can you. Sir, say as nmch .' — 
 Perhaps I should be depriving you of a right, were I to press you 
 for an answer on all these points. 
 
 But the most mean and characteristic portion of your assault on 
 nio — if, indeed, any portion of it rises above the ''lower deep '' of 
 meanness — is contained in a note, in which you charge me with — 
 
 " Preparing to leave the State as soon as he can find an hour in 
 which his creditors have taken their eyes off of him." 
 
 Sir, I have no creditors in Maine, and none elsewhere who will 
 not be promi)tly paid when their demands become due. For every 
 dollar you will tind against me in that State, I will give you two in 
 your own dishonored paper, or in the billsof honest mechanics, who 
 have experienced the benefits of your " Credit System " to then- 
 hearts' content. No being, having the feelings of a man, or even 
 the utlrihutes of the higher order of the brute creation, would hava 
 been guiliy, under the circumstances of the unjust and unfeeling re- 
 
9 
 
 mark 1 have quoted from you. Revelling id thi? accuiDiilaied infa- 
 rnv of years iiulustriotisly devoted to daily and limirly acts of mean- 
 ness and treacliery, you have no feeiinj: ni()r(; cicviitc'd than I he 
 instinct which governs the wandering Hyena, and leads him to 
 the commission of fleeds which the nobler heasts of the f(jrest would 
 despise.* If I could consent to stoop to the loathsome task of spread- 
 insr hefore the readersuch of your |)rivate n<^ts as have become puiilic, 
 I could show strong reasons why you, Sir, if you were human, 
 would shriidi from the gaze of some td' tho>e to whom yon stand in 
 the relation of debtor and creditor. But there is no necosiry lor the 
 degradation — there is enough in your public career to stamp your 
 character with indelible disgrace, and to render you, Diaugre your 
 insignificance, a bye-word and re])roach wherever honor and honesty 
 exist, 
 
 I have now ffonethroucrh with your statements in relation to me 
 and my business. If I have not proved that you are still entitled to 
 the brand of " LIAR, " and entirely unworthy of belief, under any 
 circumstances, it is because there is no potency in facts ami no mean- 
 ing in words. But I am not done with you yet. In order that I 
 may be enabled to exhibit a full length [)ortrait of the man by whom 
 I have been calunuiiatetl, I shall furnish the public, in a second let- 
 ter, with a sketch of your political life, which will enable those who 
 mav read it to judge of the degree of credence to which your state- 
 ments are entitled. And as you commenced this controversy with an 
 utter disregard of all the courtesies of civilized life, you must not 
 complain if I handle your misdoings "toi/Aotf/g-Zores," administering 
 strict justice, untemjjered by mercy, but yet unmixed with malice. 
 In tile mean time, I remain 
 
 Yours, with all due respect, 
 
 H. W. GREENE. 
 
 The Hyena feeds on its ovm species. 
 3 
 
LETTER NO 11, 
 
 Concord, N. H., Jan. SO, 1SS9. 
 To Francis O. J. Smith, M. C. from Maine. 
 
 Sir : — If 1 felt sure that the sovereign contempt in which you 
 are held by the citizens of the State you in |)art misrepresent, had 
 not drowned in their minds the recollection of the many acts of po- 
 litical baseness, and treachery — of cowardice, meanness and 
 malignity — which have reduced you to that state of degradation 
 where even the imagination fails in the pursuit of its victim, I might 
 spare my pen the revolting task of limning the features of one who 
 is a living monument of how great a degree of political corruption 
 and perfidity, may be brought, for a time, into high public stations, 
 when disguised by the cunning arts of the demagogue — and a no less 
 signal instance of how preci|)itate is the fall of those who rise, by 
 such means, to unmerited honors. 
 
 It has been your fortune. Sir, to occupy, for one of your years, 
 comparatively, a large space in the public eye — I do you no wrong, 
 when I say that for several years past you have been notorious in a 
 small way. Your habits of industry, and your mode of proceeding, 
 have caused you to bu iminensely overrated in j)oint of talents. You 
 have a low cunning, and a mode of unceremoniously appropriating 
 to your own use the l.ibors of others, which have enabled you to 
 pass for infinitely more than you are worth. Your talents are re- 
 spectable — nothing more — and I will do you the justice to say, thai 
 you always strive to excel in whatever you undertake — I am sorry 
 to find it necessary to add, that a very great proportion of your un- 
 dertakings have been of a dishonorable, and many of them of a 
 disgraceful, character. You have literally quarrelled your \\:i\ to 
 puijiic notice — to an infamous notoriety. Broils, where the tongue 
 and the pen have l)een the most dangerous weapons useii, have been 
 your forte — r»r '^villainous saltpelre^^ you have always exhibited a 
 natural repugnance. Through your whi)lc political career, already 
 drawing to u close, in a manner, and with an abruptness not extreme- 
 ly flattering to your self-love, you have bullied where you could — 
 you have bargained with the corrupt — and you have sneaked away, 
 like a paltroon ne you are, from those who were too bold to b« 
 
u 
 
 frightened, ami too honest to be tampered with. No political knnve 
 ever found ought but a kindred spirit in you. As you are now striv- 
 iii-j; to rise from tiiat dull oblivion to which you have been consigned 
 by the common consent of your insulted and betrayed constituents, 
 the present is not an inappropriate time to review your political ca- 
 reer, and to hold you up to the withering scorn and contempt which 
 conduct like yours is sure, ultimately, to receive. After your brutal 
 attack upon me, you must not expect me to spare your feelings, if 
 you have any, nor must you complain if, in the end, I leave you, like 
 the criminal on the gallows, elevated without being honored. 
 
 As I remarked in my first Letter, you entered the political arena a 
 pauper, and you leave it an ingrate. You went to Maine an ad- 
 venturer, not only without " the amount of five dollars of capital," 
 hut what was much worse, without five grains of integrity. You 
 commenced your political career without a particle of principle, and 
 you have held your own with extraordinary tenacity. You were 
 first introduced to the j)ublic,asa poor, friendless, but talented young 
 man, deserving more than you had the courage to ask — this was 
 your ostensible character. In reality, you were first forced into public 
 life, by a sort of galvanic operation, for a particular purpose. You 
 were seized on by those who had wrongs, real or imaginary, to re- 
 dress, as a fit instrument for their purpose — and you have just as 
 much right to arrogate to yourself the credit of effecting the u -poses 
 for which you were used, as the cat-'o-ninetails has to be ccf .b. 'ered 
 a high judicial tribunal for the administration of justice — your cases 
 are i)arallel — you were both tools. You have lived to cause those 
 who warmed you into political being to regret that ever their ne- 
 cessities compelled them to resort to such an instrument. You had 
 no sooner emerged from obscurity, than you set about fanning jeal- 
 ousies in the republican party, with a view of turning them to your 
 own private account. You sought to raise temjiests, in the hope to 
 ride on the whirlwind and direct the storm. Profiting by your first 
 step in politics, you sought to inflame the minds of your friends 
 against those who stood in your path, and then induce them to use 
 you to redress their wrongs. It was thus that you gained that intro- 
 duction to public life which, ultimately, enabled you to "reach by 
 reptilism a reptile's power.'^ 
 
 Your overweening vanity, and arrogant pretensions were speedily 
 rebuked — you were reminded that your political egg was hardly 
 pipped. You felt the justice of that rebuke, and felt it keenly, but 
 you had not the magnanimity to profit by it. With characteristic 
 meanness and duplicity you set yourself at work to undermine tho 
 characters and influence of those you could not control, and had not 
 the power to cope with- 
 
12 
 
 111 1931 you were a member of the Lower Hou:ie of tlie Lesrisln- 
 ture, a::;l gave un earnest of that reckless, hen(J3tron<^ and dictatorial 
 spirit wljich h id already brnu.,'ht you to the biocU. You asi)ired to 
 lend, before you had become known as a private, and claimed the 
 right to issue Bulls of Excomnuinicntion against those who questioned 
 your omnipotence, Vour friends urged your youth and inexperience 
 in extenuation of your faults. But at length your insolence became 
 insufferable, and one of the severest castigations you ever r< ceived, 
 was administered l)y Col. Parks, than whom no man could be more 
 severe. The efTect was — not a reformation on your part — but a long 
 absence from the Caucus Room. As has always been the case since, 
 you pocketed what you dared not resent. 
 
 You next appeared as a candidate for the office of Attorney Gen- 
 eral — and, notwithstanding you ha(! the support of a large |)ortion 
 of the democratic members of the Legislature, such was your per- 
 sonal unpopularity, and known destitution of principle, that }ou 
 failed of success. 
 
 In a subsecjuent year you managed to be elected to the Senate, 
 and — as there was no other candidate for the station — President of 
 jhat body. This elevation did not raise you above your old habit of 
 puffing yourself, and you wrote and published a panygeric on the 
 manner in which you discharged the duties of that place, which made 
 your friends both laugh and blush. As President of the Senate you 
 deemed it for your interest to abandon your old plan of courting 
 federal abuse and then calling on your friends to sustain you under 
 it, and to propitiate tiie former at the expense of the latter. You 
 did it most etiectually. Too partial friends attributed your course to 
 a want of nerve — while those who knew you best, attributed it to 
 its true cause, a want of principle. At the close of the session, you 
 had your reward in the shape of the most flattaring testimonials of 
 the high .sense of your ''impartiality,^^ "iuagna7iimity'' &ni\ "justice''^ 
 entertained by the federalists, wliile the presiding officer of the other 
 Branch, the Hon. Natha.n Clikkoro — who had taken care of his 
 frienils, and left his enemies to take careol" themselves — was denied 
 even the customary vote of thanks, and made the especial object of 
 federal abuse. 
 
 You were next promoteil to a seat in Congress — a field where your 
 friends [iromised you would distinguish yourself! How have you 
 fulfilled that promise .' In the oulst-t of your career — before your 
 character became known — backed by a large portion of the strength 
 of the dtiiiocraiic parly, u liicli you were always careful to call to 
 your aid — you procured a few Executive appointments and removals 
 — and this, with some |)ersonal altercations from which you emerged 
 jin diM'p disgrace, teas all '. Wliat a mighty r«<-or(l of )>Htriotic ser- 
 
15 
 
 vices! Duriii},' vour Cougrc-ssioiial life, 1 tini not iiwnre ttiat vuu 
 ever did any tiling worthy to he retneinberecJ, although you did much, 
 which, for your reputation's saUe, you should pray to have forgotten. 
 You soon destroyed the little influence with which, by the partiality 
 of friend-i, you were clothed when you went to Washington. Presi- 
 dent Jackson was not long in sounding yonr character, and his em- 
 phatic declaration that you loere unworthy the confidence of the de- 
 mocracy of Cumberland, i\\n\ tliat the "-Star in the East" u-as dis- 
 graced in the person of her representative, shew that he early placed 
 a just estimate upon your political integrity. When he knew you, 
 and, of course, ceased to respect you, you ceased to supjjort him, 
 except in name, and that oidy with a view to your own re-election. 
 Nothing but a momentary consciousness of your own utter insi<;nifi. 
 cance prevented you from ojjenly ofjjwsing his second election. — 
 You floated passively with the current you could not stem. 
 
 There is one portion of your early Congressional career, well 
 known to many, Ijut neveryet given to the public, which is so truly 
 illustrative of your character, that I cannot forbear to notice it. — 
 From motives and for purposes which it is not necessary to ex[)Iain, 
 you were exceedingly anxious to procure the removal of the then 
 Postmaster of Portland, and the appointment of the present incum- 
 bent. Yon did not succeed to your mind, and became enraged that 
 Mr Barry, the then Postmaster General, did not, on the instant, 
 grant your reijuest. This was at a time wiien that officer was as- 
 sailed with the whole force of the federal press, and needed the 
 sustaining aid of every true friend of the administration. You, Sir, 
 at this very period, asserted that you had prepared yourself xoith the 
 necessary statistics, and that, to use your own elegant expression, you 
 "would blow him to HELL" if he did not accede to your wishes. 
 The removal and appointment were soon after efl'ected, in a manner 
 which reflected no honor on you — and now, mark the change — 
 OO'YOU FORTHWITH PREPARED A Pamphlet, HIGHLY LAU- 
 DATORY OF HIM, sejit it to Portland in the shape of an 
 ansioer to a letter oj inquiry, which was subsequently written by one 
 of your constituents there, had it printed "By permission of the 
 Author," and circulated in scores all over the country ! ! This, Sir, 
 is a fair specimen of your character — of the character of a man who 
 has the insolence to talk of ^'scoiindrelism," as if there was, on 
 earth, a greater ^'scoundrel" than himself. 
 
 No portion of your career, however, presents a fairer index to 
 your general character, than your quarrel with your colleague in 
 Congress, Mr. Jarvis. I do not deem it neces.«ary to go into the 
 details of an afl'air « hich is of recent date, and fresh in the minds of 
 
nil, a:* tlje most .itnkmg of all inoderii iiiiitaiiees of poUiooni}' nnJ 
 cowaniic-c. It is sufficient to say, that you invited a challenge from 
 Mr. Jauvis by the most insulting bravado, declaring to him thatyou 
 hel(lyi>ur.selfres|)onsil)le, personally, "m any ordeal he might select." 
 You not only invited the challenge, but you actually extorted it from 
 him — and then, when your valor was put to the test, you skulked 
 from the contest you had sought, under a subterfuge so paltry, that 
 the friend or two you have yet left cannot even now hear it mention- 
 ed, without blushing for your degrading meanness and cowardice. 
 You did all tliis, and consented to live, after being posted on the walls 
 of the Capitol of your country, in tlie following torm : — 
 
 OO" " Mr. Francis O. J. Smith having caused to he placed upon 
 the tables of the members of the House, a gross and infamous attack 
 upon tlie character of one of his colleagues, it becomes necessary 
 that the subsequent proceedings resulting from this act, should also 
 be known. 
 
 OO" "Mr. J.Mivis therefore submits the correspondence which has 
 taken j)lace, and pronounces FRANCIS O. J. SINIITH to be, most 
 emphatically, a LIAR, a SCOUNDREL, and a COWARD ! ! " 
 
 The plea that })ul)lic sentiment in New England is against duelling 
 in all its forms, will not avail you. You knew that as well, when you 
 submitted your letter to Mr. Jarvis to your friends — when those 
 friends assured you that if you sent it he could have no alternative 
 but to challenge you — ichen you promised that if he did challenge, 
 you would fight, and not disgrace yourself and them — you knew 
 this, I say, as well then as you did when you skulked from the issue 
 you had invited — and when, subsequently, you dared not walk be- 
 tween your lodgings and the Capitol, without a friend to |)rotect you 
 from the cow-hide which you felt that you deserved. There has 
 never been but one feeling in relation to your conduct in this affair, 
 wherever it has become known — it is that of mingled pity, contempt 
 and disgust — and it is matter of astonishment with those who have 
 bestowed a thought on the subject, how you coidd, disgraced as you 
 were, survive the gaze of those by whom you were surrounded.* 
 
 I come, now, to the period of my first personal acquaintance with 
 you. As I before remarked, when I took charge of the Argus you 
 
 • Mr. IVise and Mr. Smith aro on the Committee for investigating 
 the Swartwoul ili-talcation. Will tlie reader imagine them compar- 
 ing notes on the subject of duelling ? Let him sn|qiose Mr. Smith 
 attempting to arrogate too much to himself at a meoling of the Com- 
 mittee, a thing he will be very likely to do— that Mr. Wise, n littlo 
 nettled, makes the inquiry, if this is Ihf Mr. Smith who was posted 
 by Mr. Jvuvis as "most emphatically, a Liar, a Scoundrel, and a 
 Coicard" — and, on being answered in the ntTirmativc, that he, with 
 his usual vehemrnce, vows he will not associate \\ ith him unless he 
 roc.uros a certificate nf chnrarti'r. Then let the render imaeine, if 
 p ran. the feelinp* nf the •'cri'tillcmon f'rnm .^/ain»'." 
 
 t 
 
15 
 
 wtrt tlitt crtiiiiiiiate ot" tlie deiiiucraiie \n\tty for re-eleciiuri. niid I 
 ^iive you Tiiy support — although candor compels me to say, that 1 tfid 
 it reluctuntly, after yon hii'l given me an insight into your character, 
 by briHgin:; ine for [)ublicati()n, and quarrelling with ine because 1 
 would not publish, an article icritten hy yourself, in ichich you com- 
 pared yourself to Gen. Jackson, and claimed to be ten times the man 
 you ever tcere* I repeat, that I gave you the full support of the 
 Argus — 6m/ it loas of no avail. You were distrusted by the great 
 body of the people — and such \vas your standing with the honest 
 yeomanry of the country, that although the democratic Senators and 
 other County officers were elected by about one thousand ma- 
 jority, you failed of success. And yet you have the unblushing 
 effrontery to talk of your " s/anrfmg-" with the '' old democracy," 
 whose confidence you never had. Your signal defeat, w hen the 
 party to which you belonged was so strong, showed you your 
 true position. The scourge was no longer wanted — the ex- 
 citement had died away — and you discovered that you had mistaken 
 the power that used you, for your own. It was then that you felt 
 your weakness — it was then that you cried to your constituents, in 
 tones of melting agony, " Help me, Cassius, or I sijik.'' 
 
 Having failed of an election, with all the aid afforded you by a 
 popular ticket, you well knew that you woulil stand no chance 
 if you took the field alone, and earnestly begged that your 
 next trial might be on the day of the Presidential Election. When 
 the expediency of this was doubted by many, who feared that your 
 name would carry down the electoral ticket in Cumberland, you 
 acknoicledged that you could have no hope of succeeding icithout the 
 aid of that ticket, and declared thai you tcould rcithdraw from the 
 field unless it was extended to you. Your importunities p-revailed. 
 But even with this aid, those who were — from necessity' rather than 
 any attachment to you, however — your most active supporters, 
 doubted your success. The " old democracy" had no confidence in 
 your professions, and it was not until you had solemnly pledged 
 yourself never again to ask for their votes, f that they could be in- 
 iluced, even by the necessities of tiie crisis, to support you. Your 
 peculiar position, they knew, gave you sufficient influence to defeat 
 any other candidate, and it was this consideration, and not any mer- 
 it of yours, which secured you a second run, and an election. Al- 
 though I had at that time prosecuted my investigations into your po- 
 litical character, sufficiently to be compelled todcsjiise you, as heart- 
 
 *These M. S. S. are still in my possession, and shall be produced, 
 if necessary. 
 
 t This fact invests your more recent declination with quite a fur- 
 eical character. 
 
IG 
 
 ily as 1 do nl this t/ioiiieni, 1 yielded iiiv personal views to the cir- 
 cumstances hy which I was siirrouiideil — ])ertnitted mvself to be 
 over-persuaded — and gave you my support. And yet you talk to 
 me ot' ''ingratilude.'^ — You, a mere creature of circumstances — 
 who, politically, existed only through my forbearance, and when 
 one word from me would at that juncture, liave consigned vou to 
 your original insiijnificanre. 
 
 I will here call your attention to an occurrence of which 1 was an 
 eye witness, which cannot have escaped your recollection, nnd 
 which must be fresh in the minds of many of your constituents. 
 It shows, in a striking light, something of your true character. On 
 the evening we ascertained that we had carried the election in 
 Cumberland County, in November 1836, there was a large gathering 
 of our friends at the Elm Hotel, in the city of Portland, to rejoice 
 — nt your success, as tjou seemed at the tiirie to think, iiut in fart — 
 that we had escaped defeat u'ith such a load on our shoulders. You 
 were, of course, present. As the successful candidate, you were 
 toasted. You attempted to reply, in a speech, the substance of 
 which was, an expression of your gratitude to your p<dirical friiMids 
 for snatchiug you, as a brand from the burning. You said, that in 
 remembrance of their goodness to you, in coming forward at such a 
 crisis, nnd rescuing you from the jaws of federalism, which were 
 open to devour you, you would wage eternal war upon the eiipmy, 
 and do battle to the death — that after what your friends had <lone 
 for you, it u'ould be the basest insratitude in you not to serve them 
 to the end of your existence, without other reicard — adiling emphasis 
 to this ex|»ression, by thumping your bosom in a manner which must 
 have satisfied all present, tlint if you really had a heart, you were 
 determined to wake it up, while tears of joy were rolling through 
 the furrows of yonr blanched cheeks. I distinctly recollect that the 
 scene was absolutthj distressins:;, you labored so in expressing your 
 gratitude and devotion. Where, Sir, are you now ? Where are 
 your professions of gratitude.' You have jiroved yourself to be that 
 black hearted traitor which you portrayed in your speech. — You 
 have basely ilesertcd those who made you, and thrown yourself into 
 the arms of their relentless foes. For one, I trust you will be well 
 enough satistied with your new friends, never to desert them. 
 
 Out of many similar acts of '^gratitude^' performed by you, 1 
 nelcct the following as an example. The Eastern Stage Company, 
 composed, |>riiicip»lly, at that time, of leading suj)porters of yours, 
 h:t<l an Agent in Porilaiid who had incurred your disj)leasure. You 
 threatened them, with characteristic impudence, that they should 
 never have n renewal of their contract, unless he was removed. — 
 They, treated your interference with their private concerus, with the 
 
17 
 
 contempt it mented. When the period for retie^vlng the contract* 
 came round, you sunk the dignity of a Congressman, and posted to 
 Washington to underbid, in the name of another, your old supporters, 
 and destroy their liusiness. With all your arts and appliances, you 
 failed. Your next step was to charge them with Mial-j)ra(;tice,!ind de- 
 manded an investigation. The investigation was granted, and they 
 proved on you, what you charged on them. You were chagrineil and 
 disappointed at the result — but you solaced yourself with the .sweet 
 reflection, that it had cost them lime and money to expose your 
 meanness. W'liat a noble employment for a tnend)er of the highest 
 legislative body in the country! — how ennobling your example! — 
 what a page for history ! 
 
 Having thus obtained of the democracy of Cumberland, and of 
 the State, all that you had the least hope or prospect of securing — 
 having become satisfied that you had got all you ever could have, and 
 much more than you deserved — you began, gradually, to throw off all 
 disguise, and to appear in your true character, as an opponent of 
 the administration. From a roaring radical, stumping on poverty 
 and rags, you soon became, through the aid of a ^^credit system," a 
 dashing aristocrat, scarcely speaking in the street to those whom 
 you had, but a few years before, disgusted with compliments and 
 smothered with embraces. Your political acts were far more rep- 
 rehensible, and for the moment, much less harndess. 
 
 In the spring of 1837, Gov. Dunlap havingdeclined a re-election, 
 the democracy of the State held a Convention at Augusta, and put 
 the Hon. Gorham Parks in nomination for Governor. The wounds 
 on your back, inflicted by Col. Parks in 1831, were still unhealed, 
 and upon your avowed princi|)le of never forgiving an injury or a 
 chastisement, you set yourself at work, with sappers and miners, to 
 defeat his election. You borrowed, conjidenlially , of a friend, a 
 letter in which certain charges were made against Col. Parks of 
 having given utterance to sentiments of disrespect towards the 
 binding obligation of regular nominations — took that letter to the 
 County Convention at Gray— laid it, through a tool, before that 
 Convention — and thus gave the first impetus to the spirit of insub- 
 ordination which, joined to the feeling of apathy which prevailed, 
 defeated the re[)ublican party in the contest of '37, and, for the 
 second time during her existence as a State, gave Maine a federal 
 Governor. You then deemed yourself a great man. You fully 
 believed that you could rally those republicans who refused or neg- 
 lected to vote for Col. Parks, upon the ^^conservative" yt\i\ii'oTm, and 
 thus hold the ''balance of power" in the State. 
 
 The democracy, mortified at a defeat which they had permitted 
 themselves to encounter, set about the redemption of the State, in 
 5 
 
18 
 
 1958, with a fixed deterriiit»atioii to succeed. Col. Parks htiving^ 
 Toluntarily withdrawn, John Fairfield was nominated in his 
 stead, and the canvass had but just opened, when you were brought 
 upon the field, as the champion of the "armed neutrality''^ — of the 
 '^entity of recent oris;in,'^ which, "holding the balance of power, ^^ 
 was to dictate terms to the two great contending parties. Your 
 nomination, you say, was made during your absence in Europe, and 
 without your knowledge or consent. You must pardon me, sir, for 
 doubting the latter part of your statement, for it is entirely unsup- 
 ported by proof. The truth is, I apprehend, the reverse of what 
 you say. You were the body and soul of the "conservative''^ faction 
 in Maine — you dictated all its measures, and regulated all its acts. 
 Your nomination was unquestionably made, not only with your 
 consent, but by your direction. Your absence at the time was 
 thought by you to be a master stroke of policy, as it would not only, 
 as you hoped, prevent the press from exposing your position, but 
 also enable you, in case you failed to receive a respectable support, 
 to disown the whole affair on your return. Had you succeeded in 
 detaching votes enough from the republican party to have defeated 
 the election of Mr. Fairfield, and to have vested the "balance of 
 power'" in you, we should have heard nothing of these piteous la- 
 mentations over the use of your name in your absence. Had you 
 even received two thousand, instead of two hundred votes, you 
 would have sung a very different song. 
 
 During the progress of the canvass, I deemed it expedient, occa- 
 sionally to reply, in the Argus, to the attacks of your friends on the 
 regular camlidate of the party, and to counteract their efforts to de- 
 ceive the public as to your real character. You not only misrepre- 
 sent the truth, but also greatly overrate the importance attached to 
 your nomination, when you accuse me of devoting "column after 
 column'^ to you. Ihad higher ga7)ie,^-ani\ I used often to think that 
 even the little space I occupied with occasional expositions of your 
 claims to the Gubernatorial chair, was wasted on "a dead duck" — 
 and I have never doubted the fact, since I saw the official return of 
 votes, and learned that you received but 282 out of near 90,000 in 
 the State, and seven only out of twenty-four hundred in the city 
 where you reside, and where, it is fair to presume, you are best 
 known. No, Sir — neither the efforts of the "conservative" press, 
 nor the threats and darings of tho ignorant, vulgar blackguard, 
 whom you keep at the corners of the streets of Portland, to disgust 
 with his unmeaning and brutal profanity all whom necessity corn[)el9 
 to listen to his outbreaks, could induce me to devote "column after 
 column" to such a worthless subject as you. 
 
 Just on the eve of thi« election, tho public wer« furnished with 
 
19 
 
 Boine of the fruits of your disgruceful practice of preserving the 
 private letters of your friends, for the purpose of holding theni in 
 terror over their heads, whenever they claim the liberty of thinking 
 and acting for themselves. There appeared in a federal paper, pub- 
 lished at Saco, garl)led extracts from letters written to you in the 
 confidence of private friendship, and which could never have seen 
 the light without your permission. They were brought forth to de- 
 feat the democratic candidate for Congress — but such was the disgust 
 felt by honorable men of all parties, at that mode of warfare, that 
 they entirely fiiiled to efifect, otherwise than beneficially, the gentle- 
 man whom they were furnished to defeat, he having received a larger 
 vote then any other candidate on his ticket. Since your return, you 
 have shamelessly published, over your own signature, extracts from 
 other private let'ers, thus showing that you glory in your?hame. 
 
 I have now, Sir, passed in review before you, a few of the promi- 
 nent features in your political career. To have been as minute as, 
 upon some accounts, might have been considered desirable, would 
 have occupied more time and space than I choose, at present, to de- 
 vote to you. I have, in fact, merely skimmed the surface of the 
 ocean of your corruption. I have in my possession a thousand other 
 facts which reflect no honor on you, and which I shall spread before 
 the public at some future day, should it become necessary. You 
 have long flattered yourself with the belief that there was no man, 
 acquainted with your history, who dared to meet you in the field of 
 controversy or argument. Allow me to tell you, that you have been 
 shunned, not from a fear of your talents, but from a disinclination to 
 engage with a man who refuses to be restrained by the rules and 
 courtesies of civilized life. I thank God that I am so situated with 
 regard to you, that these objections have no weight with me — and 
 although you are one of the last men on earth with whom I should 
 seek a controversy, you are, you may rely on it, one of the last 
 from whom I should shrink. 
 
 Throughout the whole of your Letters, you seem wonderfully 
 disposed to play the patron — and you couple in your charge of "tn- 
 gratitude^^ against me, the Editor of the Age, to whom you claim to 
 have extended your hand in an hour of need. It is due to that 
 gentleman that I should disclaim any intention of defending him 
 from your impotent wrath — he has done that, already, in his paper, 
 in a most triumphant manner, and with an ability which I should 
 feel proud if I could equal. I refer to your charge against him, only 
 to show how well you sustain the character of a "Liar" in every 
 movement of your pen. You have not the "good memory" said to 
 be essential to men of your character. It hapjiens, unfortunately 
 for your elaim of having extended favors to the Editor of tho Age, 
 
20 
 
 that in June 1882, you aihiresdcd a letter, a copy of which I hav« 
 Been, to one of the genlletnen whose names were subsequently piren 
 you iis surety on the notes furnished in payment for your interest in 
 that estal)lishment, calling on the democrats of Kennebec to come 
 forward to your relief, and thus |)revent the jiaper from going "j3u6- 
 lichj into the market /" — enforcing your reasons for that call in the 
 following cin|)hatii: language : — '^Vj/ resocrces depend on thb 
 CREDIT of myself and a few friends, and my individual support de- 
 pends on the disposition which I make of my time" — adding, that 
 you were unwilling to "embarrass either [yourself or friemls] 
 longer" — and urging the importance of bringing the matter to a 
 close at once, "/o obviate all appearance and necessity o/"a forced 
 sale" of your interest ! ! Thus it apjiears, by your own showing, 
 that, so far from your having extendi^il to the Eilitor of tie Age the 
 n3.sistance of which you so arrogantly boast, it was he who conferred 
 the favor on you, by generously coming forward in the hour of your 
 distress, when you were not only la!)oring under "embarrassments" 
 yourself, but your 'friends'^ also — purchasing your property — and 
 remedymg the '^necessity" for its going into the hands of the Sheriff 
 for ^'public sale." Now when it is considered that this letter ex- 
 posing your necessitonscircumstances, was written but about eight- 
 een months prior to the time when you claim to have made large 
 advances to G<;n. Todd, tlien pubii.-her of the Eastern Argus, to 
 save the democratic party from annihilation, those who know you 
 will be inclined to believe that, as in the case of the Editor of the 
 Age, the order of your statement should be reversed — that it was 
 Gen. Todd loho made the advances to you. In good sooth, you have 
 played the patron on a small capital. 
 
 Your rigmarole about the '^credit system'' and "specie basis — and 
 yourslan^ about "locofocos" and "radicalism,-' — would sound better 
 from another source. If you arc, as you claim, ^^unchanged," you 
 are as devout a ^^hard money man" as breathes, and (juite as much 
 of a ^'leveller" and "locofoco" as exists within the sphere of my 
 knowledge. To show that 1 do not speak without book, I submit a 
 few extracts from a s|jeecli made by you I'n 1S34, and by you written 
 out for publication. You thus discourse in relation to the icorthless- 
 ness of Bank paper, and the necessity of a SPECIE CURRENCY: 
 
 "Fellow citizens, i could wish to address some remarks to your 
 understandings, upon the measures and policy of the national adnnn- 
 istration, rel iiive to the currency of the country." • • • » "li 
 is the policy of the administration, and the unerring tendency of its 
 measures, to dispense with h largo portion ot" the fictitious paper 
 currency of the countrv, and to substitute therefor the GOLD and 
 SILVER CURRENCY', which is e.nph.-iticallv the CURRENCY 
 OF THE PEOPLE." 
 
21 
 
 "The people then having only a Bank currency of paper, nre 
 made nlternately the slaves and the viclims of tlie Banks. Bui ^'ive 
 
 us the CONSTITUTIONAI, CURRENCY OF OIR COUNTHV, — the GOI^D 
 
 and SILVER coin of our mint,— GWE US THE PEOPLE'S 
 CURRENCY, n\n\ noitlier BanUinjr corporations nor .my oil)er set 
 of corporations can contnd its circulation, or coinniand its disappear- 
 ance from our market at pleasure, leaving every class c\eslitute of u 
 circulating medium." 
 
 Of the happy results that were to follow the measures you then 
 
 so strongly approved, you thus spoke ; — 
 
 "The whole people will Ix; coiivertcd into Stockholders of equal 
 privile;res, when the PEOPLE'S CURRENCY shall he restored 
 to its ap[)ropria!e ASCENDANCY." * * « "It is this state of 
 thiol's that the policy and measures of the national administration 
 and its friends, [one of whom you professed io 6e,] are destined to 
 accomplish: and it is this state of tliimrs that \\ill he accomplished 
 under the operation of the GOLD and SILVER COIN Laws re- 
 cently enacted hy Congress," See. 
 
 The following was your opinion in 1334. If you are unchanged^ 
 it is your opinion now ! 
 
 "That the ireneral tcndencv of hanks in this roimtrv is SUBVER- 
 SIVE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF FREE GOVERNiMENT, 
 AND REPUGNANT TO CIVIL LIBERTY— 7io7ie that are ac- 
 quainted with them will deny ! " 
 
 Wiih a hrief reference to your present position hefore the country, 
 I will close this Letter, already protracted to an unexpected length. 
 
 By a union of all the branches of the opposition in Congress, you 
 have been placed upon a Committee a|)|)ointed,os/ensi6/7/, to investi- 
 gate the defalcation of Mr. Swartwout, hut in reality, to attack in 
 their report, the Secretary of the Treasury. Do not flatter your- 
 self that your election on that Committee, was a tribute to your 
 talents, or an index to your standing — it was rather an acivnowledg- 
 ment of your recklessness of truth, and unscrupulous malignity. — 
 You undoubtedly bought the place by repealing in Washington, the 
 idle boast you made in Maine, that you had collected facts that icould 
 blow the Secretary of the Treasury to the devil, and that the public 
 should hear from you ! Sir, you deceive yourself as to your stand- 
 ing and influence in the community — you overrate your character 
 for veracity. What reliance will the public place on the Re[)ort of 
 a man who has quietly submitted, for years, to the brand of "Liar," 
 without an effort to prove the misa])[)licalion of the term ? Who 
 will credit your assertions, when it is well known that you went 
 upon that committee, full to bursting, with malice against the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, and the administration, and jircdetermined 
 to attack them .' Who among your immediate constituents would 
 believe one single word of a report made by you, under such cir- 
 '•um^tanres r Who among them wnnhl pvvn ;iI|o\v it to pas* th'> 
 
22 
 
 ordeal ul" a reading ? You may Jie. •") ■ titrate your true position 
 and character — you may help to souii'^i^^ depth of your treachery 
 and ingratitude, but notiiing more he intelligence and moral 
 
 sense ot' the community have deprived your teeth of the |)ower to 
 injure, although they could not eradicate the venom from yourjaic — 
 And whatever report you may send send forth to the world, will 
 be received with a distrust which will be ripened into disbelief, in 
 the mind of every intelligent man who may give it an impartial 
 reading. Your Letters, "To the Electors of ^Vnm«;" show that you 
 have not the power to conceal your malice — and your experience 
 ought, by this time, to have taught you, that the community care 
 very little for the efforts of a man struggling convulsively, in the 
 vehemence of passion, to free himself from the consequences of 
 deliberate treachery. 
 
 If you were my friend — and you have no just cause for being my 
 enemy — I should advise you to rf;tire from |)olitical life — think as 
 little as possible of the past — and endeavor, \\ith all your strength, 
 to become a better, and a hapi)ier man. You have learned, by i)ifter 
 experience, that 'Hhe way of the transgressor is hard," and the worst 
 wish I have in store Cor you is, that you may be blessed wi.h wis- 
 dom to profit by your cxpc-ience. 
 
 With all due resjject, 
 
 I am, &.C. 
 
 H. W. GREENE. 
 
 W46 
 
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