Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-01-06

he nop admits. On our return VIC find this
letter has been published in many Of our
most respectable papers, and transfer il TO
our columns with such comments as the cir
cumstanccs of Mr.. Dickens visit here, hisre-
ception among US, and an honest belief in
the authenticity of the letter would natural
" provoke. Vermont is on the ground at
the time the letter first makes its appearance
in our paper, and reads it, together with the
comments which accompany it. on the very
day Of its publication here. He asks leave
to write reply to it, which we cheerfully
accord to him, as we reckon him among our
most intimate friends, consider him gentle
man, and suppose, withal, his reply will be
presented with reasonable promptness.-
We'll, time rolls on, and, in the progress of
events, steam ship, from the " Sea-girt
Isle, arrives at our wharves, bringing, from
Mr.. Dickens own hand, a certificate, in
which he pronounces the letter in question to
be forgery. Vermont then very brauely
and magnanimously comes forward, fort
night or three weeks after the publication of
the letter by us, with the consequential semi
official tone OF one who had known all about
the letter from the beginning, and with good
deal of sneering and in very bad spirit
charges US with dealing unfairly" and eds
honestly :" with our readers, and declares, in
effect, that we have Knowingly palmed Off"
upon them as genuine production, 4" dis
honored, " forged" and counterfeit I"
paper. True, no accompanies this fierce
denuncia,ion Of us, intended for the public
eye, with a private communication, IN which
he exhorts us not to "sotten has ABUSE {"
1--WE quote verbatim) {" of US in the least, but
to kick back as hard as we please" Accor-
dinghy, on this hint, we "kick back gently,
and, in an easy, good natured" way, in
form our readers that so far from our having
uttered forged paper, knowingly, the cour-
teous youth, who brings the accusation against
US, is himself the guilty ofiender-and Ver-
mont now acknowledges that he knew this
charge to be utterly untrue when he made it.
Under this state Of facts, we submit with what
propriety, with what "inimitable propriety,"
perhaps we should say, Vermont can repre-
sent US as being resolved on personal quar-
rel with him ! He first writes US an " abus-
i've letter, and exhorts US not to "soften "
it in the least and when we kick back "
his imputations, in accordance with our in
structions, he complains Of personalities and
wakes still more fierce and warlke. But we
did not think such sham fight would be
very edifying to our readers and we accord
ingly discontinued it. Now Vermont has al
ready been informed, in "private letter.
which must have reached him before his las,
communication was published, that we had
no ambition for personal quarrel with him
Such a quarrel would neither accord with
our taste, or inclination. But we feel it tc
be a duty, nevertheless, and we hope We
shall always have the pulse and spirit to per-
form it, to repel impertnence and expose
deception, from whatever quarter they may
proceed, whether attempted upon our read
ers, or oursell-and for this purpose we have
recounted tho simple facts of the case in an
swer 10 the article in tho Waterman. Blu
Vermont very sagaciously observes that hi
cannot see the wit Of d" calling a popula
,criter, BLACKBOARD of the coarsest grain.
Very we'll :-nor can we. We certainly neve
bestowed tina. epi,het upon Mr.. Dickens
We applied it to the author OF the offensive
letter, after we had acknowledged it was no
written by Dickens. Nor did we say it the1
for the nit of the thing, but simply as
plain matter of fact. Will Vermont declar
war upon this positionl The Gree
Mountain State " next insists that We ha
no right to repeat ,0hat WE said to him in
private conversation, for the profound rea
son that We can not hold aprivate converse
ton with ourself; but the same section G
country very pruden,ly declines the some
what formidable task " of simplifying upo
this original idea. He will therefore excus
, us for saying that we regard his remark
, about our holding a "prvate conversation
of our own, in which no one else should hav
any part" as very foolish quibble, ur
, worthy of full grown man-and Vernon
never would have resorted TO it, had he no
been conscious of the weakness fthe charg
he made against US of betraying his conf
dence. We merely repeated what zoe ha
said to him in "private conversation
and we did this for the purpose of shown
, that he had knowmgly made false accuse
ton against us in the very sentence in whic
, he charges as with similar offence. An
for doing this, Vermont represents us as Sat
tempting to fasten private quarrel upo
him r" Now in all sincerity and good ma
ture, we would ask Vermont if this does M
f strike him as partaking somewhat of tn
n "childish" and shallow" There al
G many other things Of personal character j
6 the Waterman article, several errors Of fa'
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