Page:Andrew Erwin - Gen. Jackson's Negro Speculations (1828).djvu/23

 fact is, it is conclusive against you, as three days after that date, your payment to Richard Epperson for $929 45, which you stated six months after, was made for that express purpose, renders your own certificate null and void to all intents and purposes, and places you before the American people in a new dress, which I would not wear for ten times as many bubbles as have been floating about you, and the favor of all your aiders and abettors in concealing your crimes.

Now Sir, you ought to have had some knowledge, and certainly had, of the brittle glass house in which you live, before you permitted your responsible editors to throw stones at every window which was not thrown open to illumine your path to the presidency. How did you expect your declaration of war against me, brought forth by your celebrated biographer of Timber-lake memory, was to pass on without an effort on my part to place truth in opposition to falsehood? In that I have succeeded, and I wish never to be put to the trouble again.

I confess your superior skill in blood and carnage, and, when displayed against the enemies of our country, you have always bad my hearty approbation. Whether the result of fortuitous circumstances or of generalship, it has been the same to the country, yet I must confess the recital of the slaughter of John Woods (who was in your general order accused of previous desertion, which I know to be untrue, by the express words of his captain and many other men of first rate character for integrity and truth,) tarnishes your military fame in my estimation, very much indeed, and cannot fail doing so in that of others.

Lastly, I never had a slave brought before. me for offending, against whom I gave an unmerciful sentence, such as you are said to have done at or near your own fire side at the Hermitage of late, in the attempt to execute which, it is said your own slave was killed, and all hushed up without any proceedings in court against the man, who, it is said, in executing your order, or on the way to do it, killed said slave.

Now, Sir, it is possible you may have some preparation for washing the blood of this human being from the escutcheons of the Hermitage, but as there is no bank secret about this matter, and I have been written to on the subject, and must still presume you above concealment unless in bank matters, it is quite as important to the American people, to know the truth about this affair, as it was that Mr. Wirt should be duped into a false report against me, on ex parte testimony procured by your wire-workers, Eaton, Calhoun, and Clarke, in 1822, which was proved totally false in the very place where all the facts in the case were known, in 1824, and again brought into use against me, when in retirement in 1828, for your especial benefit and theirs also, as we all know you sink or swim together on your late violent South Carolina resolutions. It is with you to say when this organized persecution against me shall cease. I will defend against it until you cause it to cease. You began it of choice, if you have been benefitted by it, your object is answered.

ANDREW ERWIN.