Arkansas true Democrat., 1860-07-07
Reply to Gov. Roane's Manifesto.

Reply to Gov. Roane's Manifesto.
 In the number of the Old Line Democrat of the 2lst June, appears letter from ex-governor Roane. It is our purpose to ments, not because in matter or manner it is superior to productions of its kind. or that from any special like or dislike we single out the author, but because an an swer to the charges and statements therein contained will be an answer to all of a like character.
 Tine letter is dated Contentment. June 20th," and is published at Little Rock on the morning of the 2lst. Where this misnamed place of Contentment is we know not, but the dates show that the let ter was thrown off at white heat and printed with electric despatch.
 As to the preference for Rector over Johnson that is natural and to be expected. but when J. Selden Roane pretenls to give as reason that one has more mind than the other we respectfully d,mur to his opinion. That is a subject upon which he is incapable of forming an opinion. In answering this letter of Roane's and dis proving all its statements. we shall not go far for a witness. Indeed we shall make a witness of him. And here, by way of parenthesis, we say that we have as much respect for the ex-governo" as men can have for another in his situation; and shall treat him fairly and as courteous lv as the case will admit. More than that, we this day stand as his defenders against himself. We are his apologists, his ad- vocates, as we shall presently show. We shall quote largely. It will be necessary to do so to set him right. We rannot vindicate him, but we can show that he is not so guilty as he writes himself.
 As one of old appealed from Philip drunk to Philip sober. so we appeal from Roane, the disappointed aspirant, to Roane the Governor Out of his own mouth, with his own words and by his own pen, will we win our cause, and, at the same time, defend him.
 The fourth paragraph of his letter is a charge that the backward condition of Ar L .. ho Tob onl Gov Conway. Here, desirous of stating this oft repeated and oft refuted islander so it would not nauseate, J. Selden grows poeti- cal and says:
 "So much so, that now she stands before the world an invalid, her energies crushed. her young strength gone, with the blue veins of political con- sumrton clearly traceabe upon her pallid brow and wasted form"
 Reader, this man had this consumptive patient in charge for four years. He and his had control of the State and directed affairs. Did he leave this patient in healthy condition? When she left his hands was she well? Alas. no! Read this from his message of 1850, when, af ter reciting the debt and resources of Ar kansas, he says:
 "This is a dark and gloomy nicture of our pe- cuniarv condition. an unenviable pos ton to sign the State-that State, too, with whose honor and prosperity is identified every earthly aspiration of my soul; upon VI ose fair name depends what ever of reputation ani character may have won for myself, by life spent upon her soil and in hcra aoryicp. | lt gloomy nctura which it affords me no pleasure to contemrlate; and had permitted q conviction of my duty to give way private feelings and State pride, I should have passed these unpleasant truths by in silence, leaving to those who shall succeed me, the pleasant task which have attempted to per form. Our public fiInctionaries have too long shrunk from responsibility, acting upon the nrnci p'e that sufficient for the day is the evil thereof The time has arrived in the history of affairs when unpleasant results are to be ma 'e known and m sfortunes to be looked in the face"
 So it appears the patient was very sick then. In 1852, the same picture is pre- sentel and after coniessng his inability to find remedy, Governor Roane concluded his message in these words:
 "You have my views, and the result of my re- aecticn ms upon those subjects deemed by me of the most general importance. and in the most di rect manner involving tie interests of the people of Alkansas. If they shall be made the basis Of your egislatcn, I shall hope for future for Ar kansas far better than her paSt-tar brighter than she can ever attain under the policy which has tong fettered and paralyzed her energies, and still withholds her from the race of imp oyement."
 In 1852, he says it was previous policy which had long fettered and paralyzed the energies of the State. In 1860, he says it Is the policy of his successors. In the same message, after an expose of the man. agement of the banks, he says:
 "To this false step and continued false man. agement oi these bank may be attributed m st of our misfortunes. Public confidence v,s de- ssroysd, emigrants were warned away from our