Litchfield enquirer., 1829-04-30
JUDGE GOULD'S LETTER,
TSMe Ea,ow qr,Ae Ne,c. Iose Ere~ing Ios.,

L GentleMen-Whlc absent from home. on a latc journey, saw, for tho first time, in the Evening Post ofthe l9th ult. the copy of u letter, bearing date the 9th of the same month, aud addressed by Mr.. John O. Adams, to James X. Hamilton. ESu. The statement, in connexion with which the hate Mr. Tracy's name is introduced in that letter, appears to demand some notice from his surviving friends and by this consideration, alone, I am induced to trouble you with the present commit. cation. My absence from home, when Mir. As letter was first shown to me, and for eleven days afterwards, prevented me. for the time, from besluwing any. attention upon it, and though, on my return home, immediately addressed inquiries concern- ing the subject-matter of Mr. As state- ment to all the survivors, (so for us | can recollect) of the Connecticut delegation to Congress at, or near, the period refer. red to by him; yet. as the answers of some of those gentlemen did not reach me till this day, (April 11th I have been una- yoidably delayed thus 'ar, in offering them for publication. .t [ In the letter above mentioned, and in reference to what Mr. A. calls "projcc.'' of certain leaders of thu late federal party, to effect dissolution Sfthe union, and to place Gen. Hamilton at the head of the "military movements" nocdssary to it's accomplishment, he seys, ''My informant, to the best of my recollection, Sas Mir. Uriah Tracy, then Senator from Con- nectlcut; l say 10 the best of my recollec- ton, because Ut enc of my conversations with Mr. Tracy, on this subject, another nmeber of congress, ,also now decoased, twas present; aud l am not perfectly sure, from which of them it was, that l received this information"
 Now, all this is, doubtless possible; be. cause it cannot be proved to be physical, impossible. The only inquiry therefore is, whether, under al the circumstances which have bearing upon the question the statement of Mr. A. is credible 2 Ant upon this question, the public must be leil to choose between probabilities, absolute certainty, upon tho negative side of tht question, being, in the nature of the cnso utterly unattainahls. ..., @.. l.3 sr.r. .f.
 For the purpose of invalidsting MT. Al stntements, sO faF as thoy allect tho late MT. V. it might Do sufficient fnrme tO lay before the public, tho replies of tho survi- vors of the Connecticut delegation of is03-4,and upon these alone 10 sabmit tho question without comment. I am induced, however, by several considerations, to ac- company those replies with q few remarks.
 MT. A. tn the predicament in which he stands, can hardly expect, that his uncor- roborated declarations upon tho present question, will be regarded us prOct. The unimpeached testimony of one credible wil- ness is tho very least, and lowest, by which any fact can be established. But Mr. A. in this case is not Witncss he is . party. For it is most material, Go the question of his credibility, that every statement, sane ,ioned by his authority, concerning the ver-memorable project" for dismem- bering the Union, has been made for the purpose of promoting his osom personal viesDs and this too, while he was con- sciously labouring under tho suspicion, If not the direct imputalion, of calumniating one political party, of decoiving the other, and of prevaricatiDg towards both.
 His first disclosures" (by which I mean those committed to the Keeping of Messrs. Giles and JehIerson,) were made at the moment of his secession, or us some have been hardy enough to term it his a. postGcy, from the federal party. And, by one of those striking coincidences," which sometimes occur in human affairs, that moment was precisely tho same, in which all his hopes of public honors, and political preferment, from the federal par- ty, were utterly extinguished. To his meU political associates he was an object of deep and inveterate suspicion; and he plainly perceived, that, unless he could conciliate their respect and con6dehce, by convincing them that his desertiOn of tue federal party was prompted, not by an,bi- tious or other sinister motives, but by an exalted sense of public duty, his !" occupa- tion was gone" s8 W
 Iu this delicate coDjunciure, the expe- dient which he employed, was probably, the wisest and best that the wit of man could have devised for the attainment of his object. The profession of any new and sudden nlaminatiOn on the principles of government, or science of politics, would, tn his circumstances, have been an awk- ward and somewhat hazardous experiment. This usual resource of new pr0sclytes was, obviously, not adapted to his parsic- ular case. But the disclosure of the fed- er0I conspiracy against tks iNtegriGy Of tks FInsnw ..,aa a~acal., s.,iaaI R hse s.s,.s~...s.