Page:The Judicial Capacity of the General Convention Exemplified.djvu/25

Rh , July 5, 1856. ,

Sir:—I wrote you on the 18th ult., advising you that I was about to publish the facts and evidence in the case to which my memorial to the late Convention related, and that if you would furnish me with a copy of the testimony whereby it was thought by the Convention of last year, that you had "satisfactorily established your innocence” of the offence charged against you, I would cheerfully incorporate such testimony in my forthcoming pamphlet. Not having received any answer to that letter, I write you again to say, that I will publish in my pamphlet any evidence, not unreasonable in amount, which you may think sufficient to prove your innocence;—so anxious am I to afford you every opportunity of vindicating yourself before that ultimate earthly tribunal, where the case is now about to be carried. Trusting to hear from you soon if you have any evidence you wish to offer, I remain, Yours truly,

To neither of my letters—although it is now nearly a year since they were written—has Mr. Wilks ever deigned to reply. And yet, in the presence of the Committee appointed at the last Convention to act on my memorial, Mr. W. professed to entertain none other than charitable and friendly feelings towards me. The reader will see, therefore, that it is no fault of mine, that the evidence, by which Mr. Wilks' innocence was thought by the General Convention to have been "satisfactorily established,” is not presented in this pamphlet. I have used every proper and reasonable effort to obtain that evidence, but all to no purpose. And to this day I am left in ignorance of the precise nature and amount of the evidence by which his innocence is thought to have been proved.

And now as to the reliability of Mr. Miller’s testimony, which, though given under oath, has been set aside by the General Convention, as utterly worthless. I say has been set aside, for the verdict of that body in this case shows that no reliance whatever was placed upon that testimony. And thus Mr. M. is indirectly—by implication, at least—pronounced a perjured man by the largest organized body of New Churchmen in the United States—a body that assumes to be "the General New Church of the country." I know not how this may strike others, but it strikes me as a very serious matter. I think nothing short of a large amount of the most unquestionable evidence could justify the verdict of such a body, which goes to impugn the sworn testimony of a private individual. For it is plain that Mr. Wilks’ "innocence" cannot be inferred, without sup- posing that Mr. Miller has sworn falsely.

1. In the first place, then, what conceivable motive could Mr. Miller have had in manufacturing such a story as this about Mr. Wilks, and