The age-herald., 1898-03-20
RICHARDSON'S
 HEATED DENIAL Had No Connection With Author ship of Rawls Letter ATTACKING GEN. WHEELER Denounces As False and Caluminous Paragraph in Special to Chattanooga Paper
 Says None of His Support
 CTS Are Guilty.
ATTACKING GEN. WHEELER
Special to The Age-Herald.

Huntsville, March 19.-Judge William Richardson wrote a warm letter today de- nying amy and all insinuations that he has any connection whatever with the author of letters which appeared in the Alabama Courier and refiecting upon Gen. Joseph Wheeler's official and private life in Wash ington. The letter is addressed to George w. Ochs publisher and manager of the Chattanooga Times. It says:
 Tn the issue of the Times of Sunday, March 1S, 1898, and under the headline Gen. Joseph Wheeler dated Washington, March 12, follows a lengthy letter contain Ing the following paragraph: 'Circumstan- tlal evidence which is very strong indicates that these letters were written by some oVer-zsalous friend of Judge Richardson, of Huntsville, Ala, who is General Wheeler's opponent for re-nomination, or were written at the instigation of that gentleman
 T denounee false, calumnious and without the sembance of truth every in situation, intimation or suggestion ex- pressed or implied in the above quoted para graph, or coming from any circular issued from Washington or elsewhere, or from any person or souce whatsoever that I in- stigated, counseled or advised or that had any knowledge of or connection, direct or indirect, with the 'Clum Hank letters recently published in the Alabama Courier at Athens, Ala Any effort upon the part Of any one to connect me with the de- graded and cowardiy crime of redcctinG on the name of a good woman, denounce as infamous and false and those who know me will scorn the insinuation.
 He Knew Humphreys
 "The article referred to states that tn. letters in question purported to have teen writtn by George M. Humphreys, of Gar field, Va. Until after the publication of the letter in the Athens Courier, I had never heard of the existence of such person as George NJ. Humphreys except as fol lows:
 Some time last December I received a letter dated at Washington, December Il, 1897, and signed G. M. Humphreys, asking me to give him one or two papers favora- ble in the Eighth district to my nomination for congress- that for some years he had been a Washington correspondent for sev- eral Alabama papers. l replied, giving him the names of two newspapers, one of them the Alabama Courier, the other the Deca- tur News. Early in January 1898, I re- ceived a second letter written from Wash ington, signed G. M. Humphreys, in which the writer proffered hdS services to me in aid of my canvass, and requesting me to wirte to him at Garfield Va. I believed then that he was merely seeking proper employment of me. I replied directing him to call on my personal friend, Hon. John H. BanlShead a member of congress from Alabama. I wrote to Captain Bankhead stating that I had received the letter from G. M. Humphreys and that he being stranger to me, I had referred the writer to him. This was the last time I heard from G. M. Humphreys or any pretending to be G. M. Humphreys.
 ''I did not know who G. M Humphreys was, I had never heard of him before. 1n- to whose hands my replies to G. NJ Hum- phreys have fallen I do not know, but 1t is plain that my last letter of the early part of January, 1898, addressed to G. M. Humphreys, Garfield, Va, is being sup pressed for the purpose of creatin- vile and unfounded suspicion against me. If the letters written to me signed c. M. Humphreys are forgeries, then they fa4ied in the purpose which is manifest now, of eliciting some reply from me which could be tortured into connecting me with the authorship of the 'Clum Hank letters to the Athens Courier
 ''It is but reasonable to suppose, consld- ering the nature of the article from Wash ington that your correspondent recelVeu his information from some one in Wash ington. I presume your correspondent got his information from the twenty-thousand word circular of General Wheeler, referred to by the correspondent.
 q am free to state, further MT. Editor that the circumstances surrounding this matter taken in connection with recent deye,opments, tend strongly to convince me that no friend or supporter of mine IS the author of the letters published in the Athns Courier. Respectfully,
 VIM. RICHARDSON.