New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-28
GERRIT SMITH.

We have no delight in controversy with gen.
tleman like Mr.. Gerrit Smith, whom in spite of
bis eccentricites, it is impossible not to respect,
and whose fiercest blows one can only desire to
party with tenderness, and to pay back with
mercy. generous, Independent man. whose
impulses are mainly on the right side, though
HIS action may sometimes be on the wrong, il is
uch more to our taste to do justice to his often
admirable and humane public cOnducs than to per-
form the part of censor upon his occasional pub
lie errors and weak esses. Indeed, our readers
will bear US witness that we have never COM
mented upon the latter except in most for
bearing manDer; and if we are now forced to do
otbersise, it is the fault Of nobody but Dir.
Smith himself
Not very long ago a correspondent of THE
TRIBUNE at Syracuse spoke of Mr.. Smith hav-
inc failed to vote against the Nebraska bill be-
cause il was his rule 10 go to bed at o'clock.
This statement having been brought to our notice
by b friend of Mr.. Smith, we at once corrected
il, and again repeated the notorious fdct-otten
before prominently published in these columns,
and never contradicted there until this Syracuse
Ietter-that Mr. Smith was present at the final
division on the Nebraska bill, and voted against
il. But al the same time we added that when
the prolonged struggle of the Northern members
was going forward to prevent the bill from being
brought 10 a vote, Mr.. Smith was absent, on the
ground of unwillDgness to sit upaiter at night,
and il is this statement which no prOyOkes his
anger and creates the extraordinary display
which elsewhere adorns our page. We trust the
reader will peruse his letter and indulge US, be-
fore We proceed to notice it, in the declaration
that We are not in the slightest degree influenced
to give it place by the delicate Profer to pay for
its in ertiOn, with which Mr. Smith fayors us in
bis peroration. Any advertisements that he may
desire TO publish will be very Willingly received
at the usual rates in the proper part of the paper;
but admission TO these columns is not to be
commanded on such terms, either for letters,
speeches, or any other description puff.
BY way of justifying himself and disproying
that his hour of going 10 bed had anything to do
with his absence from the Nebraska struggle,
Mr. Smith copies q long passage from an adj
dress TO his constituents published on his return
from Washington and duly copied in THE
TRIBUNE al the time. In ttis extract his alb
sence is put exclusively on the ground of princi.
pie. The course Of the minority in resisting
the bill seemed to him wrong and he refused to
join in it. This was all right had he urged no
other ground We might have thought him mis-
taken, but must have respected his fidelity to
his conviction. But this was not all. In part
of the very same address, which in tie present
oh;urca,orv Latter he takes care 10 unit he
used the following words in reference to a let
ter Of his which had been published:
"In leaving the Nebraska bill, viii briefly refer to
the censures which have been cast on one of my
private letters The whole or none Of that letter
should have been printed | was sorry to see dis
oinied parts Of it in print. The letter not before me-
but remember that spoke in it against night ses