Year: 1859



 DEAR SIR: My absence from the State prevented my seeing the Sage of Monticello of August 4th, for several weeks after it appeared. In that issue it is announced that the paper has passed into your hands, and the editorial department will be under a pro tenn until you can make other arrange ments The name of the pro tenn editor is not given, but in braggadocio style, he the pro tem) avows his responsibility for the editorial matter. The responsibility of an unknown individual amounts to nothing. and l presume in this case it would be noth- ing If the name woS known. A man can islander and backbite as much as he pleases, while he conceais himself behind the mask of an anonymous signature, or a pro tenn editor, and in this case choone 10 leave him Tn his conceament to the indulgence of his hatred and malice, and to all the pleas urable emotions, which these passions can afford him. Justice to myself however. and respect for the people of Drew county, lnduce me to notice an editorial in your paper of the 4th of August, and one or two subsequent papers in reference to the bill to enable Drew county to tax herself for the NJ. 0. & R. R. railroad. And in the first place am free to admit that I was mis. taken in saying in my address of last .June that this bill had poSSed the Senate; the journal shows however on page 575, clear majority in favor of the bill, and my name Is recorded in the majority. The only req son It did not pass must have been its pe- cullar friends in the Senate did not wish to place you in the unpleasant predicament of defeating 1t in the House It was publicly known that you were committed against the bill, and no one could expect it to pass the House, when the Representative of Drew was opposed to it. Mir. Clark, who moved to lay the bill on the table was its friend, and handed me an authority to read to the Senate while l was discussing it. | do not mean to say or insinuate that there was any understanding between. you and him on the subject, nor do mean to reflect on you in the least degree, for vour onin- ions were well known and your course open and manly so far as know or believe. must be pardoned however for saving. thai thlnk the course pursued by Mr. Clark and others, (trends of the bili) was intend ed to save you the necessity of killing it in the House.

 The pro tenn abuses me for not calling up the bill. That Is true. But no one had right to expect me to call it up. had refused to introduce t, unless instructed bv a respectable number of the voters of Drew county. ltwas presented by another Sena tor, and of course was in his charge. Twas already to say what I had to say on the subject, and this was well known to the gentlemen who were on the select commit tee with me. But he made grave charge against me, that it was my duty to call the bill mp, because was chairman of the com mlttee. Now every member of the Senate knows that the report that made from the committee was made merely as Me orqan Of hhe conamittee, and with an open expression of my dissent unless my amendment was adopted Even your pro. tenn admits this. but he cannot see any merit, or excuse, or palliation for anything done or said by me, and if he should by any accident be- stow upon me the least word of praise, should begin to suspect myself of something wrong. 1 shall be very much surprised. if l ever get anything like justice from man who calls me ''vandal," as he does in eff feet in your paper of the 18th August On the 4th of August he said 1 killed the bill with kindness. On the 18th he says it was killed by y" vandal hands," l do not