Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-10-12
To John H. Crease, Esq

You are out again in the papers abou the public printing In your first commu mcation, you were guilty of Mree unpar donable errors which we pointed out to you In your last you pretermil" two of then entirely, and you get around the third by mere quibble. You asserted that, for print ing the Digest, we exhausted the whole ap propriation, and, in addition drew S2, 96, 63 out of the contingent fund of the execu tive department. This we denied, an, showed that, so far from drawing upon tn contingent fund of the executive depart ment to pay for printing the Digest, we di not use all of the appropriation made fo that purpose-that, in Mis connection, W never received the $2,969 63 you charge we had received.
 To escape this silly dilemma, about whcl every body was laughing at you, you sever ed one of our sentanees from the context and made 1t appear that we denied receivin! the sum of S2,969 63 at all; and then at tempted to convict us of falsehood by show ing we had received that amount for som other printing. When penning this un generous quibble, Mir. Crease, did it no occur to you that it was unworthy of you Or, after all your parade of your familiari ty with the subject you wrote upon, diC our detection and exposure of your errors so mortify you as to smother every gener ous thought or feeling?
 We have carefully read all of you article, and can candidly say we see neither sense or point in them. What is your object: In justice to yourself you should be moro explicit. Is it your object to convict us o some great public wrong, or are you mere ly writing to vent an impotent rage?
 To assist you in making out a case and to enable the public to arrive at your object we will ask you few plain questions, tc which you will reply with plain answers.
 Do you charge that our accounts against the State for public printing are fraudulent?
 Or, do you assert that our prices are ex- orbitant?
 Or, if not these, do you charge that we have printed and been paid for matter that ought not to have been printed?
 If it is your desire to make any of these charges against us, why not do so in plain language? Be open and manly. You charge us with no wrong, but stealthily insinuate every thing. By constantly harp ing upon the amount we have received from the treasury, struggling your shoulders and looking wise, you clandestinely seek to pro- duce an impression against us that you would not dare openly attempt, with all your imposing array of facts and figures and of ficial information. With the largest amount of charity for one of your venera- ble age, Mir. Crease, it is still hard for us to attribute your writing to worthy mo- tive.
 Do you think our accounts fraudulent? If so, say so like man, and produce your proofs. You were the state treasurer that paid our accounts and you say you have the facts. In justice to us, as well as yourself, We call upon you to produce them. Cease your knowing winks and dark insinuations, they are unbecoming man, and let us have palpable charges and positive proofs. We shrink from no investigation, and you have said too much or too little now to retreat. Your character as gentleman, as well as ours, demands that this controversy stops not here
 Do you charge that our prices are too high? If so, say so. It is matter easily settled We are doing the public printing at as low prices as it ever was done in the State by any other responsible office, and we will leave it to practical printers if the prices are too high.
 And ifthey are too high, who is to blame? They are the prices established by law-cs- tablished by an act of the legislature Why then censure us? But we forgot, you have found no fault with the prices. You have only arrayed the gross amount paid for public printing, and winked, hinted, in sinuated something wrong-no one knows what.
 Do you charge that we have printed mat ter that ought not to have been printed?- If so, specify what it is, and show in what the wrong consists. You know, Mir. Crease, as well as we do, that bond to do all the public printing required of us by the proper authority has been exacted of us, and that if any thing has been printed that ought not to have been, the blame does not attach to us. When you arraign us for having printed matter that ought not to have been printed, we trust you will do yourself the credit to state this fact.
 You were treasurer of the State. Mir. Crease, when all of these amounts you so pompously array before the public were drawn from the treasury. If they were wrong, why did you not expose them at the time? You have since been beaten for the office and put out of temper; has that be- gotten within you sudden new born zeal for the public interests-or has it made you more honest? We have seen many men soured by defeat, but we never saw any one made more honest by being made more sour. Perhaps you, sir, are an exception to the rule.
 You have voluntarily begun contro- versy with us, in which you question our integrity. You have known us from child hood, and if we have been guilty of a dis honorable act you know 1t. We want vou therefore to charge it plainly It is due to the public, to yourself and to us, that you should Your inuendoes satisfy nobody do us injustice, and hurt only yourself
 You say you disdain personalities, and you expect us to reply in parlor language