Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1851-11-19
A CORRECTION.

tits difficult, in election times, to keep pace with
all the erroneous statements that are set flying
over the country on the wings of the press. One
of the points most warmly urged against Mr..
Summers in the present canvass is stated in the
following extract from an article in the Enquirer
of Saturday:
One of the glazing tricks lately resorted to- is
presented in report OF Mr.; Summers speech in
Montgomery county, yOuched by the Wing sc re-
table, From that report we make the following ex~
tract
"'Twas no wonder then that he, (Mr Sunmers)
a Virginian by birth and slave owner, and from
the largest Slave county West of the Mountains
should be branded Abolitionist, while there
would be safety in a ma i've of a Northern State
owning no slaves and from the smallest slave own
ing county in the State. He had voted, while young
man, in 1880, ('322 when the public md was nfamed
upon the subject, on account OF the Southampton IN
surrecton, for bill submitting to the people whether
they would adopt system OF gradual emancipation;
but farther Than this he always ayowed the Iegisla-
ture had no power to go"
Now here is a direct and positive assertion of Mr..
Summers that his opponent, Col. Johnson, s. owns no
slaves'' We have already shown by the record that
Col. Johnson has fer years owned slaves, and that,
this very year, he is assessed upon nearly many
slaves as his competitor. Can the people of Virginia
support, tor the first Office III the Commonwealth, d
man ike George w. Summers, who thus recklessly
makes unfounded assertions and is thus grossly I'M
generous towards his opponent!
When Mr.. Summers was in Richmond, he ex-
pressed to US his regret at the publication of the
account of his Chrstiansburg speech here quoted
BY the Enquirer. The same account, we find,
inadvertently permitted to appear in the
Times of yesterday it had, some time last
week, been handed to the printer, and we had for
gotten the circumstance. Mr.. Summers said
that the writer appeared to attribute to him a re-
mark which he did not make use Of, and which
was evidently only reflection Of the writer him
self. He referred TO the language of the letter,
viz: "while there would be safety in native of
a Northern State, owning no slaves, and from the
smallest slave owning county in the State" MIR.
S. assured us thatu his Christisnsburg spec oh, a
in his speech here land his speeches al other Places
he sedulousy abstained from any allus ion to Col.
Johnson, and that he used no language as that
which the writer of the account in question ap-
peared Inadvertently no doubD to report him as
using. It must, indeed, be evident to every one
that the statement was inaccurate, for had M
Summers said anything on the subject, he Ger.
tainly could not have fallen into the error of sta.
ling that Harrison is ''the smallest slave owning
county in the State"
We hope, therefore, that we shall hear no more
OF Mr Summers want Of generosity towards Col.
Johnson in his speeches.
Auch Criticism has been expended on the rs~
ference he made to Col Johnson in his letter.
which was first published by the Petersburg In.
telligencer. That letter, it will be remembered
was private letter not intended for publication