Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-10-31
Forgery Chased un.

On the day before the late election IL
Pennsylvania, an extra Harrisburg Patriot
d Union was sowed broadcast over tina
Stale, containing what purported TO be
speech lately delivered in Massachusetts
by one John NJ. Wilson, Lincoln Eleeto,
for said State-said extract consisting ol
the most beastly and scurrilous abuse oil
our fellow citizens of Irish or German
birth. So coarse and foul an exhibition
of sheer blackguardism we do not remem
Der elsewhere to have read: and, as Gen
Henry Wilson, U. S. Senator from Massa-
chusetts, was advertised to speak at Homes
dale the night before that election, the Ger.
mans and Irish were privately assured that
he was the Wilson who had made this bru-
tai speech
We took occasion to expose the forgery,
showing that there was no John M. Wilson
on the Lincoln Electoral ticket in Massa
| chusetts-no person of that name being
known to the Republicans of that State
And. as we understood that the Courier
6es Etats Unis had given this vile forgery
currency among the French-speaking pop
ulation of the entire Union, we called on
that paper to retract and atone for the in
justice it had done.
In reply, the Courier insisted that the
speech in question was actually made by
Repuolican-not by a "Lincoln Elec tor
for Massachusetts," however, but by some
one in IndiSna. We happen now to have
the evidence required to refute the fabrica-
tion IN that form. We copy the following
letter from the last st. Joseph Valley Reg.
lister, edited by the Hon. Schuyler Colfax.
M. O., and published at South Bend, Indi-
ana:
SovTH BEND, Ind, Oct. l6, 1860.
DEAR Sir l notice in last SATURDAYS
Forum, speech purportipg to have been
delivered at Salem, Indiana, in 1855, by
John M. Wilson, which contains number
of scurrilous aud insulting attacks on for
eigners, aud which pretended speech is be.
ing used by the Democrats to array our
Adopted Citizens against the Republican
party. The same publication was made
by the Democratic papers Of this State / q
1883. | was at that time candidate for
State Treasurer; and happened to be at Sa.
lem (the very town 10 which this speech
was alleged to have been made, on the
day that this same John NJ. Wilson spoke
there.
In the very town where it is charged
that he made this speech in 1855, Mr.. Will
son branded it as a vile forgery, and a
wicked fabrication of political opponents.
He also said that he saw before him in
that crowded assemblage, hundreds of both
parties who had heard his speech in 1855, |
and he challenged any man Of any party |
to rise up and say before them that he had |
uttered any such sentiments as those as |
cribed to him. Not man denied his state |
ment. On the contrary, number of the |
most respectable citizens there made affi- |
davits, which were published at the time,
testifying that they had heard the whole |
nft hn o1h nd k,N -
such sentiments whatever. There can be |
no doubt that it was vile forgery, gotten
up for political effect; and which thus ex-
posed, and branded as it was on the very |
spot, every honorable man should be |
ashamed to revamp again for political /
ends
Yours truly, JOHN. II. HARPER.
Need we add one word 2 1t seems that |
the speech which this Mr.. Wilson-who |
was never a member of Congress or other |
wise enthusiastically did make, and |
which serves as the foundation for this for. |
gerry, was made at Salem, Ind, in 1856 !
that the forgery upon him now circul ated
obtained currency in l658-and that this
Mr.. Wilson spoke in that year at that very
Salem where this abusive speech was al.
legged to have been made, aud then and
there solemnly and publicly denied that
be ever uttered any such aspersions on
Adopted Citizens, and dared any one to
contradict him, which no one saw fit to do;
on the contrary, several respectable citi.
zens of both parties united in testifying
that the speech he actually did make there
in 1855 contain, d none of the offensive
sentiments attributed to him in the forgery
then and now SO atrocIously circulated.
How long will Adopted Citizens be
duped by forgeries like that here exposedf
How long will the Courier les Etats Unis
lend itself to such base usesi For, be sure
that so long as forgery can be made profit
able. Sham Democracy will persist in it,
". Y. Tribune.