The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1833-09-17

coud settle no point as 10 the fact Of q cor
Tespondenee between Avery and Miss Cor
nell; for he might have received an hundred
|etsets fiom her, and she as many from him,
without the Post Masters knowledge.
And, as to whether the Post Master did,
or did not rccollect tbs passage Of any letters
through his Office, directed to Betsey Hill, is
a matter Of 20 moment; for no one will pre-
tend that she might not have received many,
and the fact have escaped his recollection.
These pointsof testimony, brought forward
with so much parade, are not worth fraction
in reality, only as far as they serve the pur-
pose intended to satisfy the ignorant and un.
rejecting, that even though the most direct
proof pointed ont Avery as their author, they
were not to be accredited to him, unless
some Post Master, without motives for recol
lesting, or data 10 govern aim, could swear
positively to their reception and delivery.
contend that Sarah Maria Cornell neither
wrote, nor procured 10 be written, any one
Of those letters. If she had doue either
Ephraim X. Averv's name would have np.
peared in them, as the most certain means
Of exposure, if revenge was her object. ]
contend that she could not have forseen the
circumstances that would transpire, in man.
uer so well calculated to fix suspicion on him;
and without which, the attempt would have
been the most preposterous thing imagina.
ble.-Added to this, is the fact, that every
circumstance, Of time, Of cbiogrophy Of or
biography, Of style, and Of lhe movements of
Avery, and the total absence Of all proof
TO the contrary, point him out as the author
o. these letters, in q manner too plain and
too strong, to admit Of room for solitary
doubt.
] do not hesitate to say, and believe the
records Of Courts Of Justice will bear me out
in the declaration, that, in England, hun
dreds of persons have been executed for for.
gerry, and in this country, many have felt the
infliction Of our legal penalties for the like
offence, against whom the proofs Of the facts
have not been palmer and more decisive,
than those that 60 to trace the letters found
in s. NJ. Corncll's trunk after her death, into
the hands, of Ephraim X. Ayey.-And whst
is his defence? Why although the letters
in question bear resemblance TO other let |
ters Of his, too strong to be mistaken, still,
as there was no one TO swear to them, who
ever saw him write, they must be set aside,
md he exonerated from the charge Of their
authorship. This may be sufficient in law,
but, 10 the scale ofreaacn, its weight is no.
hing, its force, If possible less. 1t may have
been sufficient 10 satisfy those who ,siu be
satisfied, even at the expense Of justice and
common sense. But ten thousand times this
amount Of negative argument, will never
;onvinee the public generally, that Ephraim
K. Avery, was not the correspondent Of Sa.
rah n. Cornell.
have now done with these letters, at
least, for the present; and in my next num-
ber, shall call up the Circumstance of Ave-
ry's absence from Bristol on the Goth of De-;
attempting brief review Of the testimony
offered in Court, respecting il, and detsiling
other facts and circumstances that were not
there.
ARISTIDES.