The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-10-28

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provided his counsel assented, | saw the reason,
and instantly said then will go immediate
I ly to Mr.. Butler. 1t was not to obtain any
authority from him for publishing the letters,
nor to obtain his agreement that he would not
/ bring suit but to make DR. Parker's approval
of the letters effectual by obtaining his coun-
sells consent for him to act in this, in the set
Element of the matter if he wished
g. But there is another suggestion which
will satisfy business man that DR.. Parkers
story is intriDsically absurd
His statement is that he had obtained cOun-
sci to bring suit for $4,000 damages that
FORGED letters as u settlement of that suit
and published them in the daily papers with
out his knowledge or consent! And all this
was done also without obtaining a written re-
linquishment of claim for damages, should he
yet choose to bring suit Did mortal man ever
before dream of published forgery as pa
cfcation of an angry litgant; or of a forger
publishing his act, so that the aggrieyed par
ties would infallibly find it out the next morn
ing and doing it 10 a way that left the door
open to the very suit which he is supposed TO
have dreaded; and not only left it open to him.
but heaped by such provocation fresh fuel upon
his zeal as prosecutor Had done such a
crazy deed, | ought not to have been blamed,
but sent to lunatic asylum. And any per-
son that will believe that a minister of the Cos
pei, in circumstances the most prosperous,
would imperl his reputation and every inter-
est IN life, upon such barefaced folly as that,
ought to doubt ~ own sanity But am asham-
ed to reason a such matter
! The NeW York Observer has chosen Hannah
for its model, and built a gallows to hang me
upon. The Lord has been pleased to deal with
me as ne did with Mordccai, and am panied
to see the Observer swing In the gibbet resery-
ed for me-
4. But have not yet done. There is now
an account which the public have to settle
with the guilty parties who have dragged from
| honorable privacy this affair and brought a
shame and reproach to Christianity by publish
| ing it. wash my hands of blame
What was the state of things when DR. Par
ker brought this matter to the public ear? Was
he suffering in reputation! His name had
been erased from the book Mrs. Stowe had
conferred amicably with him as to a public
reparation; all the grievances of which the
Observer makes so much viz: Mrs. Stowe's
obstinate silence, had been explained and drop
ped; an apology had appeared in the public
prints, which had struck the public mind as
most Christian and satisfactory and, by his
own showing there was but this objection, that
he had not signed the letters of prefix or suffx
which were at any rate but the machinery of
introducing the main thing Mrs STORES retrac-
ton. DR.. Parker knew too, that in so far as
Mrs Stowe was concerned, she had acted most
innocently and in good faith and that if any
one was to blame, | was the man and that
she had acted honorable, not only, but had
yielded her judgment, and consented for what
she supposed was his wish, and taken these
letters instead of her own card Now, admit
ting the gross construction put upon my con-
duct did that justify Dr. Parker, as man of
honor, in ripping up and publishing to the
world an er pdrte statement of all the grievan-
ces he had had with Mrs. Stowe, and which,
in so far as it lay in her power she had settled
DR.. Parker in this thing stands before the
public as man who negotiates privately with
Mrs. Stowe, until he had obtained from her "a
public concession of his injuries and then,
awaiting himself of an informally, turns about
and exposes her to obloquy and reproach, by
publishing garbled statement of all these
grievances which her public retraction was
procured to heal
5. Conclusion
When the Nsw York Observer represents
DIR. Parker as Offering evidence to Mrs Stowe
in the first instance, to satisfy her that she was
in error, 1t is shown that it stated an untruth
when it declares that Mrs. N. " took no notice
of his letter" it is proved to have stated an
untruth; when it says that she deigned no
reply to his second letter, it states an untruth
when it declares that Mrs. Stowe was induced
only by fear of libel suit to come to terms it
states an untruth; when Dr. Parker, in his
letter to the Observer, intmates the same thing,
he brings himself into conflict with his own
statement respecting the same thing, given in
his letter to Prof. Stowe. When Joel Parker
and the NeW York Observer state that the
published letters were not written by DR. Par
ker, nor signed by DR.. Parker, they do at length
state truth but when they state they were
not approved by him with the understanding
that they were to be published, they state an
untruth. When they both, neglect to say a
word OF Mrs Stoves card of the origin of
these letters in Dr. Parker's study of his re-
quest that they should be written of his warm
approval Of them, they suppress the truth
when they declare that Dr. Parker agreed only
to take these letters into advisement. and to |
make them the subject of future consideration,
they state an untruth.
And now, if the Observer has been led into
this quagmire by DR.. Parker, it can extricate
itself though it will be hard soon to cleanse
itself and stand among 10000 families as a
safe and judicious religious paper
II DR.. Parker has been drawn into it by the |
Observer, he cen repent, confess and regain his |
peace of mind.
But if both of them took hold of hands and |
leaped together into the conspiracy to destroy
me- and blast the influence of Uncle Toms |
Cabin, they ought to confess first to God, next
to the public, and then to each other They |
have done me no harm and have nothing to
forgive.
In this long chapter of consecutive falsehoods
which have flowed down the columns of the
Observer, there is not an alternating circum-
stance. In DR.. Parkers letters there are ex-
pressons of regret and hopes that things may
be found better than they seem but in the
Observer there is not a hope expressed for bet
ter things not a sorrow uttered over such
wickedness as it sets forth there is no intima-
ton that there may be an explanation that
when am heard from, or Mrs Stowe, possibly
n better face may be put upon it. There is
the steady tread, from beginning to end of its
recital, of man who has deadly purpose,
who is sure of his victim, who tracks him with
delight and excitement, who marks the vital
spots, and strikes blow upon blow to make the
execution deadly And having put forth char
ges which will henceforth stand without a
parallel of atrocity in the history of religious
journalizng it declares that it was done for
the " entertainment" of its readers We part
company from the New York Observer On
the road that we are endeavoring to travel we
shall seldom meet it, and we bid it farewell
In respect to DR. Parker, my feelings are
those of most unaffected sorrow His age, his
Office, his former usefulness, his newly planted
hopes in a congregation lately bereavcd of the
pastoral care of the noble son of an illustrious
tather-thesc things and the general welfare
of religion, make me inexpressbly sad to have