The Van Buren press., 1859-11-25
For the Van Buren, Press.

ded, if not convinced, ut the reply Of " An
Independent Thinker" in the Press. Ii is
a source of regret that my efforts to deal
fairly with your irascible correspondent,
have proved so signal failure 1t appears
from his last as well as former articles, he
thinks that notharg can offer are facts, ar
guments or fair statemcnts-that no Ian
guage which can offer is kind, courteous,
or good tempered. / regret that molesty
and common usage require that should be
compelled to resort to nom de plume. and
that | cannot present myself in propria per
soma. My known character for good tenn
per, and efforts to deal fairly with my neigh
bors, would at least vindicate me from IN
tentionally misrepresenting ' An lnde-
pendent Thinker or stirring up the bile OF
SO amiablc a gentleman.
l make the amcnde honorable to A. /.
T. if L have misunderstood or misapplic,l
his language. But he must pardon me if |
=. Introduce in this article the 81 abusive Ian
language referred to in my last, and show
by what deduction l arrived at the conclu-
sion that he applied the same to your hum
bic servant
In his communication of Nov. 2, A. 1.
L. winds up his cxordium with these fe
marks "Still when man becomes a
newspaper correspondent he is in meas
ure public property, and his communica-
tons are liable to criticism, courtesy being
always observed" He then commences hil
criticism on your humble servant in the
following language. With sense OF
those things before me, wish to call attcn-
ton, for short time to the article in the
Press of the 2Sth inst, over the sigma
turc of :" w"
Here, VIC see he claims the right to criti-
else the article of :" W. and then he makes
that article and w " the subjects of his
comments. Had | not right to apply the
remarks of 4. l.. rs article to myself !
Certainly l am regarded by \. T. T. as tho
friend of Col. Wilson; and, politically
speaking, the g enemy" of Col. Hindman
| In the course of a. l. Il. IS reply, hc uses
the following language:
" His enemies, finding that he has pow
er, and popularity, and cannot be bought
by factions, and disposed of as they think
proper, are trying to cry him down by eve
ry species OF low flung abuse, lying SLAM
ders, malicious insinuations, false charges
winks and mods"
Considering that "An Independent,
Thinker " was criticising my article, and
= making the friends of Col. Wilson E. enc
mics " of Col. 1Iindman) the subject of his
indignant. comments, | had the right to re-
gard the :" abusive language" as intended
for myself in part and most especially. Ii
was by this course of reasoning. | arriv-
ed at such a conclusion, and by referring to
will be seen that lie is susceptible of the
same rule of logic
Allow me to quote the language here
it is. Wv says he never was disappoint-
cd in asking ofiice-perhaps he means to
insinuate that was /; that's funny, certain
and sure" Now, is the language above
qnotclby me more positive and more APP
plicablc to An Independent Thinker
than his language was o-wards me ? Yet
" y. L. T." applies it to himself SO far as
to suppose that | insinuated that he was dis
. appointed in asking Office By applying
the same rule, " \. |: T." is as guilty of
misapplying as myself. But will pursue
this matter no further beg pardon, if
have made any misstatcment and assure
A. |. L" that | have never lost my TEN
per, and will Withdraw my insinuations that
he had been " riled.' Will also say that
do not insinuate that he was disappointed
in asking Office 1t is my humble belief
that he would scorn to hold office his cir
cnmstances, | am confident. do not require
that he should make such personal sacriic-
, es ; but do charge that there are men in
this county who have been disappointed il,
asking office; all of whom before theil
disappointment Were strong Johnson men,
belonged to the family, and now after tha,
. misfortune are down upon Johnson the
, family, etc, etc, and are clamorous fo,
l1hdman upon no other grounds, as far as
their advocacy has been heard that he is
also down upon johnson, dc.
8 AS parting admonition to " An In
dependent Thinker let me advise him to
stick to the text, and not forget SO entirely
the issue that first awakened us. lie has
totally failed to meet me in his last com
munlcation. Ensconsing. himself behind
the pretext OF " misstatements " in my
article, he has declined to respond to the
main points of that comm nnication. lie
has failed to show why the people of Craw-
ford should indulg sc in personal hate to-
wards one party SO far as to oppose friend
and neighbor. He has failed to say wheth-
er he and the present opposefs of Col. Will
son, a man of the West, was not last yea,
for Western man for the u S. Senate
He has failed to say whether it is no. a,