The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1894-04-24
A LETTER
From Colonel Breckenridge to a
Friend, Making an Appeal
For Support.
The Manifest Statement That
Gould be Made Under the
Circumstances.

! Our friend, Captain B. A. Tracy,
of Winchester, is in receipt of the
following letter from his old COM
rade in arms, Col. w. G. p Brock
inridge. Captain Tracy is, him
self, too true man to desert, in his
hour of need, an old comrade with
whom he had shared the dangers
and privations of that pitiless
storm that swept over our country
thirty-odd years ago. He is too
good man though to excuse or
apologize for, the fearful shame and
degradation that has been exposed
in that old comrades life. But
beyond and above all this, he is too
merciful man and too earnest a
christian gentleman not to feel a
burning desire to say or do some
thing that shall, in some way, help
his friend in the hour when almost
every man is pointing the finger of
scorn at him. So he sat down and
penned his friend letter, as full
of sympathy as the exigencies Of
the case would admit.
For the benefit of our many read
ers in Col. Breckinridge's district,
we take advantage of Captain
Tracy's permission to give the sub
Joined reply:
God pity the man who wrote 1t,
for unless his heart is dry as sum-
mer's dust it must bleed at memory
of his transgression; and unless we
very much mistake, between the
lines we can read, as bitter a cry
as walled out from Esau's crushed
and repentant heart when he un-
derstood too late what he had lost
in the despised birthright.
any DEAR OLD CoMRADE From
the bottom of my heart I thank
you for your letter of April 9th.
81 want you and such friends as you
to understand that do not seek vim
dication; do not ask the people of
my district to approve or to condone
1 do not look upon vote for me as
meaning that what / have done is, in
the judgment of the voter, something
that does not deserve censure; on the
contrary have stated under oath, in
the presence of God, of the court and
the country that no one could con-
denim it more than do and have done.
do not defend myself upon the low
ground that others have been equally |
guilty, and that my guilt is that l have
been fodnd out; | repudiate every
form of defense which weakens the
claims of morality, and that may i'm
pair the ties Of society, nor shall l ask
the people of my district to vote for
me on any such grounds. The ques-
ton shall submit to them is whether,
under all the circumstances, public
and private, they think ii best to reject
my proffer for future services or are
willing still to trust me. They know
my weakness, and they know my vir-
tues and my capacities; they know
whether am competent to represent
them on the floor of Congress wheth-
er am able to voice their sentiments
and to do.good work for their inter-
ests, and whether taking my whole
life and not detached part of it, not a
mere segment of it, but my whole life
in all its relations, public and private,
they can afford to have the field
of my labor the House of Repre-
sentatives, and it is upon this general
ground that l want my friends to pre-
sent my case to the district and such
men as you who know my whole
life can do me great service by seeing
to that the true ground upon which
l stand is understood My career is
not closed whether / am elected to
Congress or not. There is plenty OF
work for some one to do in the world,
work for God and my country in good !