Page:Andrew Erwin - Gen. Jackson's Negro Speculations (1828).djvu/15

 by which you resolved to secure a free passage by the agency house of Col. Dinsmore for yourself and your negroes.

Whether this is a specimen of what the people of this nation must expect from your elevation to the presidency, I leave to the people themselves, after viewing all the outrages on personal liberty and safety committed by yourself and your followers, impartially to decide. As it respects the slander upon my character, founded on Mr. Wirt's one-sided report, I have only now to say, that it is completely refuted, by the certificates given in 1824, by the Jury and Bar at Milledgeville, Georgia, who heard all the evidence and arguments in court, in refutation to the facts referred to in that report. They thoroughly understood the whole matter, and have given an impartial opinion, whereas, Mr. Wirt's report was founded on ex parte statements, procured by my bitter political enemies, Eaton, Calhoun, and Clarke, and was called up nearly two years after all the ostensible objects of government had been accomplished (by the removal of General Mitchell,) for the purpose, as I believe, of using it as an electioneering engine against me in this state. I ask only a candid perusal of the statement furnished by me to the Baltimore Marylander, and republished, at my request, in the Nashville Whig and Banner of the 20th July, in order to satisfy every impartial mind of my complete vindication against those malignant, unfounded charges of my enemies, around which they have rallied for several years. with your approbation and advice, as I verily believe. I am warranted in saying so, from the free use made of it in the press of your former partner and then devoted friend and agent, P. H. Darby, when I was a candidate, with fair prospects of success—for Congress. The free circulation your influence then gave this unfounded and malignant charge, caused me to loose my elections in 1823 and 1825, and I verily believe your minions circulated and vouched for its truth throughout the district on both occasions.

And now, Sir, it remains for me to redeem the pledge I have given to the public, to prove you a negro trader, if you dared to deny it. I consider the publications of the 30th May and 11th July, in the Republican as intended to be a flat denial on your part, of the charge, particularly the latter publication—and both evidently by your authority. It is manifest indeed you do not wish it to be believed. It has been pronounced by your supporters a calumny seriously implicating your character, and has even been called by your printers, under the impulse of a too hasty zeal, "an infamous falsehood." Yet when a statement is made by those same printers, on your own authority, of the circumstances of one transaction of the kind, enough—more than enough, is admitted, completely to sustain the charge. This has been already shewn in the very conclusive and unanswerable letter of Dr. M’Nairy, which neither you nor any of your partizans have even attempted to controvert. It is remarkable, however, that you did not contrive a story in the first instance, which you and your friends could steadily, adhere to. On the contrary, we find your newspaper giving one account on the 30th of May, and quite a different one on the 11th of July.