The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-09-12

tits pleasant to turn ASIDE iion' a'J
US cN,:.;o,, discussion and wander for a
H. oriet fields of literature. 1t is es-
49, ,rraaobIe to accept an invitation to
r.. =, srcb ramble from our courteous neigh
bor of the Argus. Some days since, it may
have been a fortnight, we found in the Port
land Advertiser of July 26, 1856, the following
elegant specimen of Southern literature, Sc
lected from speech by Alexander Fl. Steph-
ems, then a representative in Congress from
Georgia:
Well gentlemen, you make good deal OF
clamor on the Nebraska measure, but it does
not alarm us at all. You have threatened be-
fore, but you have neUer performed. You have
always cdUed in and you will again. lou are
naos.tting, aohite-liUered set OF course you will
oppose. We expect that. You will rail, but
we don't care for your railing. You will hiss
but SO do adders We expect it of adders, and
we expect it of you. You are Like the devils
that were pitched over the battlements of
Heaven into He'll. They set up howl OF dis
comfture, and SO will you. But their rate acGs
yoke, but don't chqfe Gentlemen, we have got
you in our power. You tried to drive us to
the wall in 1850, but times are changed. You
went a wooling and have come home fieeced.--
Don'tbe so inapudent as to complain. You 7csu
only be slapped On the face. Don't resist. You
aciH only be dashed into obedience.
We found this passage so striking in various
respects, that we copied it into the Press. 1t is
certainly rhetorical as well as psychology
cal curiosity The Argus, having read it through
and taken two days for reflection, made the
following polite suggestion, which we repro
duce kteratina &C p,,nctudtin,:
Need we tell any intelligent reader that Al
exander Fl; Stephens Of Georgia, NEVER UT
MENT OF THAT EXTRACT. IT is A COM
PLETE FORGERY!-G malicious and soicked
fabrication, from beginning to end! 1t is an ex-
tract with few alterations, from Helpers
Impending Crisis, an infamous abolition book,
published few years ago, in which this Ian
guage is addressed to the Shareholders of the
South.
five were required to reply directly to this
courteous question, we should certainly say,
"No, you needn't tell any intelligent reader
that A. H. S. never uttered the words of that
extract, because evidently you don't knoD any
thing about it!' The Argus reasons Gpriori
about the matter, declaring with many adjec-
tives, that the imputation is a malicious, wan
ton, wicked SANDER of one of the ablest men in
the country and one of the best of our public
men," This excellent parsonage, it will be re-
membered, was lately Vice President of the So
called Southern Confederacy, and is now an
applicant for admission to the United States
Senate. The Argus says also, in its playful
way, that "every well-informed schoolboy
knows it is counterfeit"
Now with the profoundest respect for the
good judgment of the Argus, we are compell-
ed to say, it does not follow because Mr.. Ste
phens has been, in the opinion of his friends,
one of the ablest men in the country, that he
did or did not make use of certain words at
tributed to him. That is a question to be set
tied by evidence. The Argus charges that the
editor of the Advertiser, in 1856, took this pas
sage from Helpers Impending Crisis" altered
L in some respects, and then falsely attributed
it to Alex. III. Stephens. We have seen copy
of the Impending Crisis within a day or two.
We find that the book was copyrighted and
published in 1857, and contains no passage even
remotely resembling Mr.. Stephens TRADE. We
therefore respectfully invite the Argus to ex-
plain two things: 1. How the Advertiser
could have copied from Mr.. Helpers excellent
manual passage which isn't there? 2. How
the Advertiser in 1856 could copy anything
from book which was not in existence till
1857? Until these questions are satisfactorily
answered, we must decline to receive the Ar
gus's theory respecting the authorship of this
notable bit of fnvective.