Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-02-23
Religious ToIerntiom.
From the Memphis Appeal.
-DGE LONGSTREET'S LETTER.

JUDGE LONGSTREET'S LETTER.
We offer no apology to our readers
this morning for the large space occupied
by this letter. We feel that none is
needed, and such will doubtless be the
sentiment of all who read it.
The previous letters of this gentleman
had produced such marked effect upon
those to whom they were addressed, that
some countcracting influence was deemed
by the Know-nothings of Mississippi as
indispensable. Accordingly, on the eve
Of the electious in that State, DR.. Winans
came out in letter addressed to Judge
l., in which he boldly enters the lists as
the champion of Know-nothingism.
His letter, we understand, was issued
in separate copies, and industriously cir.
culated just before the elections. He
will doubtless repent his temerity for
though very able divine, (and big
gun Of Methodist Whiggery and Know.
nothingsm in his section, he is, from
the weakness of his cause Or some Other
reason, no match for his antagonist in
this contest. The reply of Judge Long
street, upon every point made by DR.
Winans against him, is perfectly over
whelming; and the letter, as whole,
is by far the ablest and best production
of his pen on the subject. 1t is difficult
to tell which is the most admirable-its
crushing logic or its epigrammatic wit.
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI,
December 10, 1855.
. "MY DEAR OLD FRIEND" 1 received
your letter addressed to me through the
columns of the Natchez Courier neal
three months ago, and l postponed my
answer to it at first that it might not ap-
pear just before the Mississippi elections
again, that it might not appear during
the session of the Memphis Conference,
the Memphis Appeal being the chosen
medium of its publication, and the Ok
ford paper being then suspended; and,
yet again, that it might appear during
the winter vacation of this institution.
In what follows, / fatter myself that
neither you nor the party which you serve
will find anything Objectionable in the
Daoti0e which prompts it, whatever you
may think of its matter and form. The
appearance of your letter from a Wing
in paper published some hundred and
forty or fifty miles from your residence,
edited by Know-nothing candidate for
Congress, one Of my most wanton and
implacable maligners, just in time To
spread fully over the State before the
elections, was all, doubtless, purely acct
dental. But allow me to felicitate you
upon your good fortune in having been
led by your impartial judgment to take
sides with the Know-nothings against
your "dear old friend" and brother; for,
had you happened to reverse your posi-
ton, your organ would have given you
a specimen of its naturalized Southern
sympathies that would have eaten into
your tender sensibilities like screw
worm, and your Know-nothing brethren
would have taught you that love-feasts
are poor contrivances to knit hearts TO-
gSthor coHpdreu WIN hnOW-nOtnlng
lodges.
You regret that you have seen but one
of my letters. So do /. Had you seen
them all, you would have had more char
ity for my motives than you evince, and
more charity for yourself than to have
dropped some expressions and intimations
that find in your communication. You
would have learned that my controversy
with the Know-nothings was not of my
seeking; that it was forced upon me by
Know-nothing ISLANDERS, unmitigated and
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. which struck at
my dearest interests and my most sacred
relations; that | bore all these for long
time in silence and patience; even until