Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-10-24

PHILADELPHIA, October 23.-The
following was handed to the Associated
Press this evening:
To the Hon. Patrick EGdn:
DEAR SIR:-I am glad TO see that you
intend at last, even after nine years, to
reply to the attacks upon your charac-
ter, but 1 am sorry to see that you per-
sist in calling them my attacks, and
this falsehood leaves me to fear
that you may repeat the other
falsehood that my statement that your
appointment was an insult to Chile
was intended as a reflection upon you
because you were born in Ireland.
Now If you will abandon these two
sheer and absolute faIsehoods, give
you the fullest liberty to abuse me to
any extent or say anything about me
you choose, for what you can say Of me
cannot possibly do me the least harm,
and would really be, to my mind, a
kind of eulogy Of me.
As furnished in my speech at Cooper
Union the exact dates when Mr.. Reid
and the Tribune made their very serious
and repeated attacks upon your char
acter, you will, trust, see how Deces-
sary it is for you to treat them as his
attacks, not mine, and to answer
him and not me, And If
you answer him satisfactorily,
YOU NEED NOT BOTHER ABOUT ME,
and you must pardon me for saying l
never even heard of you till the Tribune
gave me the information, and I have
neither desire nor reason to think ill Of
YOU except what is due to.the Tribune'S
denunciation OF you. II you can con-
vict Mr.. Reid and the Tribune OF false
hood in making them 1 will accept your
justification with pleasure, but l must
continue to think you were rather tardy
in so grave and serious a matter,
that my objection to you was because
you are an Irishman. You see that pre-
tence is childish as well as false. for l
am good deal OF an IriShman myself,
as well as a counsellor-though regret
TO say without pay-of the Hibernian
society of this city, while some of the
best friends OF my life have been Irish
men. Ny objection to you was solely
because Mr.. Reid, in the Tribune, said
YOU were not an honest man, and don't
like a dishonest man, no matter where
he is born. If that accusation is not
true, then l have no objection whatever
TO you.
Whatever you may say now you must
confess you had justified people in
forming very unfavorable Judgment
of you. You remained silent, so far as
l ever heard,
FOR NINE LONG YEARS,
under Mr.. Reid's statement in the
Tribune that you were "a sham patriot"
and that you could give no satisfactory
explanation of what you had done with
S12O, 900, which had been entrusted to
YOUR care for the Irish cause. And then
so far as l know, you remained silent
twelve long months under the addition
al attacks upon you in the Tribune say
ing that you were sure TO be recalled,
and that "a new American representa-
tive at the Chilean capital was urgently
needed" aud worse that you had once
fled Ito avoid arrest and trial on very
serious criminal charge"
Now, all the IriShmen l know and es-
TEEN, and there are very many of them,
II so attacked would have called Mr..
Reid and the Tribune to prompt and
stern account, requiring them either to
nroye their charges or to retract them;
but you, alas! did neither. On the
contrary, you meekly endured all
these charges, and to my amaze
ment you appeared on Mr.. Reds
norch q week ago advocating hls cleo
tion 70 the presidency, thus to my mind,
practically confeSSing the truth Of his
accusation against you. On the next
evening l, therefore, felt at perfect lib
erty to call your appointment an insult
TO Chile.
So YOU see, Mr.. Esan, it does not at
all matter how poor an opinion you en-
tertain of me or what yoH say about ME.
THE ONLY QUESTIONS
which can interest the country are
,bese. Were the accusations Of Mr..
Reid in the Tribune against you true?
IF thew were not true, why did you wait
so long before refutlng them? Ano
Sbv ~ do YOU divert your attack from the
real author of your troubles to me,
whose only offense is that Of believing
what Mr.. Reid in the Tribune toid me
Bnt repeat if abuse OF me will re-
,,a,o vour mind, abuse me TO your
hesrt's content; but don't suppose any
dust can thus be thrown in the eyes OF
.Ss usI nnbIic. II you can give satisfac-
torv answers to the three questions !
have asked you will be mpieteiy vim
5icated. but nothing else will be, be-
Iiave me, OF any real service to you.
le'0 WAYNE MACVEAGH
philadelphia, October %, 1892.