American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-07-31
GEoRaETowS, July 80, 1861.
Communicated !

To The Editors of tie american Telegraph.
GENTLEMEN: The writer of the article over
the signature of A. B., in your paper of Tues
day, and whom you endorse as an cable and
highly respectable gentleman" seems to have
been at some pains to collect from the bhoy
vocabulary all the elegant terms and sayings
characteristic Of that highly honorable class OF
citizens Indeed, SO easily and naturally has
he adopted the phraseology peculiar to those
rirtuoas and enlightened gentlemen, that one is
induced to believe Notwithstanding your en-
dorsement Of his character) that he is fresh from
their society. But to the point. 1t is difficult
to believe Messrs. Editors, that SO vile an ettu-
sion as the article refereed to could have ema-
mated from any man having the slightest pre-
tension to the character of q gentleman. Ii he
had any complaint to make, gentleman would
have made it in an open, manly, courteous ana
/, qentlemdHly manner, and not through the me-
| dunn Of an article, the offensive vulgarity OF
which will, in this refined community, cover
| the author with contempt.
| AS warm friend Of the American Telegraph
trust shall be permitted to express regret
4 "a feeling in which all good citizens am sure
4 will partcipate) that you should have permit
4 ted the columns of your spirited journal to be
used to give publication to such gross person
/ alities couched in such vulgar and disgusting
language
| With regard to the alleged refusal Of the
| Com missioner of Public Buildings to permit the
statue of Jackson TO be placed in Lafayette
| square. know nothing; but my knowledge of
| the charaete,~ Of that gentleman warrants me
! IN saving al, lhough he may have made some
reiark about the ,oropriety of placing the statue
| in that placei he has too much respect for the
feelings Of his fellow-c' 'tzens to have made the
| remarks which have bee,. attributed TO nm IN
the ciegam article of your "a,'Ie and gentIemG".."
correspondent"
Mr. A. b. seeks also to raise an issue on that
very excitabe word Englishman. 1t is true
Capt. Easily is an Englishman by birth. He is
now about sixty one years Of age, and only
ffty-eght years of that period has he been
| citizen Of the United States In devotion 70
the institutions of our glorious and beloved
country he yields to no one and has rendered
more service TO his adopted land than thou
sand such envious scribbers as your corres-
pondent A. Il. ever had the intelligence to con-
| ceive or the energy TO attempt.
Taking the article whole, its mean ma
lignity has seldom been equalled; its miser-
able appeal to national prejudces, the labored
effort to transplant the antipathy Of old Europe to
the soil of young America has something in il so
pre-eminently despicabe, that tho mind hesitates
to make the necessary microscopic effort to COM
pretend the hhie soul that could have con-
ceiyed it.
If this poor creature, who has laborcd to yilify
man who is iplmeasurably above him in every
thing that can elevate human character was
capable Of appreciatng the scorn and derisioU
with which his e forts to enlist their support in
his diabolcal object have been received by the
respectable citizens native and adopted, to
whom he has appealed, he would hang his head
in shame and confusion, or seek some asylum
lif one can be found upon earthly where man.
Iness and integrity, honesty and honor, cour-
tesy and truth, are not considered necessary
prerequisites to the character Of a gentleman.
WASHINGTON, July 30, 1851. N.