Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1829-02-24
2. The whole evidence ON which that
charge is founded.

~
ence is that I am of course not in posses
sion of legal evidence, by which to main
tain it. Yet you call upon me to name
the persons affected by the charge; a
charge in your estimate deeply stigmatis-
ing upon those persons; and you permit
yourselves to remind me, that my sense
Of Justice and sey-respect oblige me to
disclose all that do possess. MY sense
of justice to you, Gentlemen, induces me
to remark, that leave your self-respect
to the moral influences of your own minds
without ,presuming to measure it by the
dictation of mine.
Suppose, then, that in compliance with
Your call, l should name one, two, or
three persons, as intended to be included
in the charge. Suppose neither Of those
persons to be one Of you. You however
nave given them notice, that | have no
evidence against them, by, which the
charge is proveable in court of law
and you know that |, as we'll as your
selves, am amenable to the laws of the
land. Does your seIfrespect convince
you that the persons so named, if guilty
would furnish the evidence against them
selves, which they have been notified, that
| do not possess d? Are you sure that the
correspondence, which would prove their
guilt, may not in the lapse Of twenty-five
years have been committed to the flames
In these days Of failing and Of treache-
rous memories, may they not have forgot
ten that any correspondence ever existed
And have you any guaranty to offer, that
| should not be called by a summons more
imperative than yours. TO produce in the
temple of justice the proof, which you say
| have, or be branded for foul and ma
lignant slanderer of spotless and persecut-
ed virtue 1t is not besides imaginable
that persons may exist who though TWEEN
ty-Gve years since driven, in the despera-
ton Of disappointment, to the meditation
and preparation of measures tending to
the dissolution of the Union, perceived
afterwards the errour of their ways, and
would now gladly wash out from their
own memories their participation in pro-
jects, upon which the stamp of indelible
reprobation has past Is it not possible
that some ofthe conspirators have been
called to account before higher than an
earthly tribunal for all the good and evil
of their lives; and whose regulations
might now suffer needlessly by the discIos-
ure of their names 2 | put these cases to
you, Gentlemen, as possible, to show you
that neither my sense of justice nor my
self-respect does require of me to produce
the evidence for which you call, or to dis
close the names of persons, for whom you
have and can have no right to speak.
These considerations appear indeed %
me so forcible, that it is not without ar
prise, that am compelled to beliew they
had escaped your observation. ycannot
believe Of any of you that which ! am
sure never entered the hears OF some OF
you, that you should have selected the
present moment, for the purpose OF draw
ing me into controversy not only with
yourselves, but with others, you know not
whom-of daring me TO the denounce-
ment of names. whicr20 years since |
declined committingto the ear Of conf
dental friendship; and to the production
of evidence whch, though perfectly salts
factory to ~ own mind, and perfectly
comneted for the foundation of honest
and ',atriotick publick conduct, was ade-
o.dte in court of law neither to the con-
'viction of the guilty, nor to the justifca-
ton of the accuser, and SO explicitly pro-
nounced by myself
You say you have no design nor wish
to produce an effect on any political party
or question whateyer,-nor to enter into
vindication Of the measures publickly
adopted and avowed by the persons,
against whom the above charge has been
made. But can you believe that this sub
ject could be discussed between you and
me, as you propose, when calling upon
me for statement, with the ayowed in
tention ofrefuting it, and not produce an
effect on any political party or question !?
With regard to the publick measures of
those times and the succeeding, which
you declare to have had your sanction and
uCCuo tiO 0ioCiuStuO INV
that radical and irreconcileable differ
ence of opinion between most of your
selves and me existed. And can you sup
pose that in disclosing names and stating
facts, known perhaps only to myself, l
could consent to separate them from those
publick measures which you so cordially
approved and which | so deeply lament
ed? Must our own defence against these
charges forever rest exclusively upon a
solemn protestation against the natural in
ference from the irresistible tendency of
action to the secret intent Of the actor {!
That statesman who believes in human
virtue should be slow to draw this infer
ence against such solemn dissertations, |
readily admit but for the regulation Of
the conduct of human life, the rules of ev-
idence are widely different from those,
which receive or exclude testimony in a