Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-06-05

writing In Protestant paper. hazard little 10
siying he Is no Protestaat Are you sure, SIT, ne
is not a.Jssuit, who has taken advantage OF an
el.cton excitement 10 abuse the confidence OF
Protestant editor, the more easily 70 deceive a
Protestant pubci Can the public DO fully as
lred, when they know the principles OF allowed
co vocation aud PERJURY on which your entire
corporation Is known aud proved to be based, and
. systemat zed fraud and flsehood authorized by
il that there has lot been a convenient coitusion
between you, sir, and this same Mr.. "0LD LIsEw
Acts OF this complexion, in the annals OF your
co poiation, are not so uncommon us TO make IL
impossible May he not be jesuit! Listen TO
his style of defence Of this apocryyhal letter. alter
being called upon to produce his authority for that
letter; let him give il in his own style, (tor even
he has an authority TO fall back upon, such as u
is) lie had been gently told that his letter had
the suspicious look Of forgery about 1t. He re-
plies:
But even upon tho supposition that they are
capable OF proving the letter which my authority
attributes to LAFAYETTE 10 be forgery, (but which
Is moral impossibility,) and that no Justification
has been perpetrated; STILL il they at the
time unable to show a genuine source phence they
obtained IT, and can nowhere find il In he writ ngs
Of LAFAYETTE, they will then, in that case, only
have acquitted themselves of the charge Of falsif-
BILE crime Of forgery.
ain the excitement consequent the discov-
cry Of the stupendous fraud ut the time prepared
the article for your press, the proper credit was
inadvertently omitted. The work was obtained
from the private library Of French gentleman re-
siding near this city, and is entitled Essdi sur Ia
Rspublig4s dcs Flats Unis d Ameri9ue, par 81.
Jeane Bap Marchandc Paris, Is 8, l2mo., PIP.
al5," being an essay on republican government,
IGc VIII hQ nuh cd
his return to Paris for the benefit Of his friends,
the Liberals and Republicans OF France. The
work, I presume, has never been translated and
published In this country, for the reason that II
does not possess sufficient merit to justify it,
"Ths author was a private, retired gentleman,
and lived some years in New York city, but was
not, perhaps, very generally known as an author In
the literary circles of either this country or Of
Europe. The significant fact that the work is rare
may, in all probability, have been the very circum
STAGES which FIRST suggested the idea ofperpetrating
the falls caton; for II the sentence had occurred in
the published writings Of Lafayette, now IN gen
eral circulation in this country 1t is reasonable to
be presumed that the certainty of the speedy de-
lection of such unhalowed and damnable desecra-
ton Of the fair fame and sacred reputation of the
namo and memory of the honored dead would have
deferred the base and villanous flsifer from his
diaboIical machination, and the impartial historian
would have been spared the painful and humilia-
ting necessity of handing down to posterity the
record of q speeies of political perfdy and moral
turpitude In the nineteenth century, the develop
ment Of which exceeds in enormty the infamous
Jus frauds, forgeiics fls6cations, and interpola
lions which dsgraced the dark ages. OLD LINE"
The italics are his sir, and have omitted hh-
declamatory preamble swollen with the verbiage
of the same bombastc aud scurrilous phraseology,
a phraseology which disturbed conscience would
be apt to select to vent in Characteristic epthets
the torment Of persistent guilt. Its dialect betrays
the Jesuit In every line as sure as the brosue be-
trays native Of the Emerald Isle.
Now, sir, either your judgment or your honesty
suffers from your uph6lding of this double attempt
TO deceive the public--the attempt to palm of
upon an intelligent community such a miserable
apology of authority for the support Of anything
and the attempt TO practise upon the credulity OF
the public with such letter Of Lafayette. You
Judgment cutters if you did not suspect the fabrica
tion, your honesty ii you did.
You are near the source whence you say you
have derived your facts. A single day would suf
flee to verify "the book in the library Of the
French gentleman residing near Cincinnati" in
which the pretended letter is said to be recorded.
You have been called on for months TO produce
that book, and the call has been In vain. And. let
me say, air. 1t Is likely TO be in vain since such
book can be found IN Pdrisi nor Is there any evil
denoe that such a book was ever published there
on the contrary tho evidence amounts almost to
certainty that no ch pork Is in existence and was
never published.
Presenting, sir, from my knowledge derived
from years OF careful study and observation of the
governing principles of your clerical corporation,
mot from bigoted prejudice against the Catholic
Church, as you have charged, had good reason
to suspect that pons fraud was in process Of be-
ing perpetrated by you and your accomplces upon
the American public. To what extent YOU would
presume 70 think yourself safe In connecting and
sustaining it, in the enlightened community which
surrounds you, did not know. only knew you
had gone TO the length Of quoting forged letter.
For myself needed no other evidence Of its for
gerry than the letter itself affords quoted by YOU
especially as il Is made manifest in the light Of my
own personal intercourse with General Lafayette.
My FIRST expectation, indeed, was that should ac-
tually end such letter "a you quote In the alleged
book, and In such connexion as would afford some
clue TO the culprit and 30 sent TO Paris TO pro-
cure tho work. To my surprise, learned from
my correspo dent that the most eminent bibliopo-
lists Of Paris after diligent search, know Of no such
cork, and they write me with one accorn that " no
sueh cork ia 20 be found in Paris r. could hardly
bring myself TO believe, notwithstanding the well
known aud avowed principles Of your corporation
warranted the eItrem, ST distrusf, that the bold
fraud had extended not only to the forgery Of a
letter Of Lafayette, but 10 the forgery OF false
title 70 book, Jaise author, false place Of pub
lection, Jaise date, false size, false number
Of pages, and In oonneIion with these, a purely
fictitious account Of the imaginary author and all
the other fabulous circumstances Of its ideal exis-
tence But TO this extent, in the present state Of
the research, this pious fraud seems already to
have reached.
Since writing TO Paris, find that Il was not no
oessary for me to have written there, in order %
ascertain whether such work had been publish,d
even in any part Of France. In the Astor Library,
Of New York. is the photographic de Ia France,
on Journal General de fIr,primeric, et de Ia Ii.
6rairs," which Is a weekly periodical ,ntaining a
complete catalogue Of all the works published in
Paris, or ia the departments, arranged In thrce
tsbles-lst, an alphabetical table Of the porks !:
"a, an alphabetical table Of the authors, aud, Sd,
a systetatie table Of the works.
This catalogue Is 80 comprehensive as to include
everything that Is published in Paris, down to a
four-pag,d ephemeral election address.
Ia company with the accomplished librarian Of
the Astor Library, carefully examined this cata-
logue and tables for the yeas l534-35-'36 and
no such work, nor anything that could be mistaken
for il, Ia therein TO be found. The most insgni6-
cant iJurpaged pamphlet 10 not omitted, and yet
n work of 20 much political prctenson a. 10 occupy