Lynchburg Daily Virginian

[By the Baltimore Herald,]

The Gauntlet Thrown down - Our Gallant Champion ready and anxious to meet both the Captain and Lieutenant at once.

We call the special attention of our readers to the proposition of Mr. Goggin accompanied by his letter to Mr. L. It will be observed that the letter of Mr. G. was written in Petersburg before Mr. Letcher became disabled. The reader will bear in mind that Mr. Goggin endeavored to worm Mr. Letcher's new appointments out of him without success, before this letter was written, and that the letter itself was replied to verbally. The reader will note these facts.

National Hotel
Norfolk, April 25th 1859.

Editors of the Herald: Accompanying this is a copy of a letter addressed by me to Mr. Letcher while at Petersburg, and to which he has made no reply, except a verbal statement to me while on the train, after leaving Petersburg in the morning for Norfolk, that he had received the letter too late in the afternoon of the day before to reply, but that he could then say it was his intention to go from Norfolk to Mecklenburg, Brunswick, &c., (quitting me at the first named point) but could not say which county he would reach first, nor could he furnish me with the time or places of his appointments, &c.,-that he should remain in Norfolk for some days, and that he probably would have to consult a physician as to his health.

Not knowing what Mr. Letcher's course will be, I write this to apprise my friends of the facts, and to furnish them with the reasons why I am unwilling any longer to play at this double-handed game of two against one. My friends surely cannot expect me to divide time with Mr. Montague (though in all respects personally agreeable) on a list of appointments which Mr. Letcher already had declared (at Petersburg) without reservation that it was not his purpose to attend though I followed him through his. He cannot be entitled to be represented by any substitute. My physical strength is hardly equal to the task of canvassing the State three months in all its parts with Mr. Letcher, who has already rested himself, and then again returned to the conflict, but now is resting and recruiting his health the second time. I cannot therefore meet his fresh substitutes, but pledge myself if he will follow me through to Fredericksburg. I will then go with him to Mecklenburg or any other point in the State, and remain with him until the election; or will unite with him in making a list of appointments, for the residue of the time after the 9th of May.

I am, respectfully
WM. L. GOGGIN.

P. S.--I shall fill all my appointments and make other appointments also, intending to canvass all points of the State as far as practicable until the day of election.
W. L. G.

BOLINGBROOK HOTEL,
Petersburg, April 19th, 1859.

HON. JOHN LETCHER:
Dear Sir--In answer to my inquiry last night in our discussion at Phoenix Hall, you said you only intended following me in my appointments as far as Norfolk, and that it was your purpose to go thence to Mecklenburg, Brunswick, and various other counties in Eastern Virginia, including Bedford.

As our meeting in Norfolk is near at hand, I shall be pleased to be furnished now with a list of your proposed appointments in the State--while at the same time I desire you to accompany me in filling my appointments already announced, as I did in yours to the close at Lewisburg, on the 6th of April, according to your list, as mine will end on the 9th May at Fredericksburg. I propose to make a list of appointments jointly, with you, commencing after the 9th of May.

I am, respectfully yours, &c.,
WM. L. GOGGIN.

It is apparent to the commonest sense that nothing can be more unfair than this attempt to put Mr. Montague on the stand against Mr. Goggin under the circumstances. In the opening of the campaign Mr. Goggin met Mr. Letcher at his appointments commencing at Rockingham, and ending at Lewisburg, through a section of country where the peculiar position of Mr. L. upon the slavery question would be rather advantageous to him than otherwise. Now that the canvass is transferred to the East where that position is found to tell against him, it is proposed to put up Mr. Montague against whom no such exceptionable record can be shown. We submit that as Mr. Letcher had the advantage of the flood tide on this question in the West, that he should be made to stand the ebb tide in the East.

Again, Mr. Montague is not a competitor of Mr. Goggin. The effect is plain. Every point Montague happens to make against Goggin tells against him as the candidate, while if Goggin makes a hundred points against Montague they do not tell against Letcher. If not the old game "heads I win, tails you lose." it is one in which Goggin risks the chance of losing, without the chance of winning. Its parallel would be a business of selling goods at cost on trust--the loss of one in a hundred would make it a losing business; or a bet, at which if your opponent wins he takes your money, while if the reverse you do not take his! It is a nice little game, and the conception will do no discredit to the sharp reputation heretofore borne by the left-tenant. The Fox has certainly shown himself no goose in this shrewd little arrangement, unless in supposing the Opposition are geese enough to be fooled into it.

BUT NOW TO PLACE THE MATTER BEYOND ALL cavil : we are authorized to say for Mr. Goggin- and have been since Saturday last-that if Mr. Letcher will accompany him on his appointments ending at Fredericksburg, he will meet both Letcher and Montague together, on any of the following propositions: First he will allow the two to divide the opening and closing speech between themselves against his two speeches, or Letcher may fill one appointment and Montague the next, or if Letcher feels himself incompetent to defend himself, Mr. Montague may do all the speaking, provided Mr. Letcher is upon the stage, ready to give a simple yes, or no, to the charges Mr. Goggin may bring against him direct, positive and straight forward, instead of having them evaded by the quasi denials of the cunning "Red Fox of Middlesex."

Now then "my hearty bucks." who affect so great an anguish at Mr. Goggin's refusal to meet a man not his peer, bring out your two champions -both your Captain and Lieutenant, and see how soon the swab takes to a tree and the Fox is run to his hole again!