Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1870-01-13

u6dGb III II IS DOSOtUs III 4 ne Hau D6eO
obliged to tell story SO cruel, because
his mothers grave gaye no rest from
slander-I ask any woman who has
been forced to such disclosure 10 free
dead sisters name from grosSest insults,
whether she would have thought of
making this work OF. bitterness a literary
success?
? Are The cries Of the oppressed, the
gasps of the dying, the last prayers Of
mothers--are any words wrung like
drops of blood from the human heart to
be Judged as literary efortss
NY fellow countryinen of America,
men of the press, | have done you one
act of justiee-of all your bitter articles,
l have read not one. / shall never be
troubled in the future time by the re-
membrance of any unki-d word you
have said of me, for Mt this moment
lreeollect not one. l. had such faith in
you, such pride in my couutrymen, rs
men with whom, above all others, the
cause of woman was safe and sacred,
that | was at first sstonished and inered
ulous at what heard of the course of
the American press, and was silent, not
merely from the impossibility of not be-
ing Heard, but from grief aud shame.
But reflection convinces me that you
were. in many cases, acting fronra mis-
understanding, of facts, and through mis-.
guided honorable feelings; and L shall
feel courage, therefore, to ask from you
a Fair hearing. Now, as | have done
you this justice, win you also do n the
justice to hear me seriously and canddly |?
What interest have you orc my
brother and my sister, iu this short life
Of ours. to utter anything but the truth
Is not truth between man and man, and
between man and woman. the foundation
on which allthings rest? Have you not,
every individual Of you, who must hers-
after give an account of youisalf alone to
God, an interest to know the exact truth
in this matter, and q duty to perform as
respects that truth ?'nz Here me then,
while i tell you the position in which 1
stood, and what was my course in rela.
ton to it. ..........
A shameless attack on my friends
memory had appeared in the Blackwood
of July, 1860, branding Lady Byron as
the yiIest of criminals, and recommend
ing the aGuicGoli book to Christian
public as interesting from the very fact
that it was the avowed production Of
Lord Byron's mistress. No efficient
protest was made against this outrage in
England, and LittelFs Living Age re-
printed the Blackwood article, and the
Harpers, the largest publishing house in
America, perhaps in the world, re pub
lished the book. IS
Its statements with those of the Black
wood, Pail Mall Gazette, and other
English periodicals, were being propa-
gated throughout all the young reading
aud writing world Of America. 1 was
meeting Thorn advertised in dailes, and
made up into articles in magazines, and
thus the generation OF to day. who had
no means of judging Lady B iron 5u by
these fables of her slanderers, were being
foulIy deceived. Thc friends who knew
her personally were a small, select sci
in England, whom death is every day re
ducing.a They were fewoin number com
pared with the great world. and were ST
lent. saw these foul ISLANDERS crystal
lizing into history uncontradicted by
friends who knew her personally, who,
firm in their own knowledge of her vir
tues, and limited in view rs aristocratic
circles generally are, had no idea Of the
width Of the world they were living 10,
and the exisency of the crisis. When
time passed on and no voice was raised,
| spoke. | gave at first simple story.
for | know instinctively that whoever put
the first steel point OF truth into this dark
cloud of SANDER must wait for the storm
to spend itself. must say the storm
exceeded my expectations, and has ragged
loud and long. But now that there is
comparative stiffness. shall proceed,
first, TO prove what 1 have just been as
sertDg, and second, to add to my true
story such facts and incidents as | did
No, tb;nLy nro,Nar OF fret N. stata