Kentucky Gazette And General Advertiser

FOR THE KENTUCKY GAZETTE.

To the Citizens of Kentucky.

ACTUATED by motives which I shall never blush to avow, I have ventured to contribute a share in an endeavor to satisfy the public mind, that the accusations contained in the Western World, against some of the citizens of Kentucky, are false and unfounded, and that the charges have proceeded from the malevolence of the personal enemies of the accused. That, I have not been mistaken, in the authors of the cruel slander—each day adds new proof. and the writhings of their tortured minds, and the effusions of their envenomed pens, will I trust, in the end produce their own condemnation. In this attempt to rescue the innocent from the fangs of a rancorous and relentless family, I was well aware that the utmost efforts of their rage would be directed against me, and that their united venom would be refreshed by a new object.

After a lapse of some considerable time spent, again in dread conclave, we discover that Alexander K. Marshall is selected as the humble and dissembling advocate of family malice.

In my endeavors to place before the public, a faithful portrait of some of the leading calumniators, I had not reached so low as this unworthy man. I must now claim the public indulgence while I devote a few lines in answer to his remarks, at the same time I am sensible that an apology is due for the egotisms of which I shall be guilty, and for thus attempting to excite the public attention to an object of contemptible, but one who ought not to remain in "quiescent obscurity."

He imputes to me as a presumption. my having assumed the name of the venerable Franklin. I am willing to confess that a desire to conform to the accustomed mode of newspaper communications, and a wish always to have before me the name of so great and good a man, has led me to this presumption. I am willing also to concede, that in addresses to this calumniating band, a name more appropriate might have been adopted—one highly descriptive of their vices and one that would most completely convey an idea of the crimes of which they are guilty, an assassin, a foul destroyer of the public peace, the lives or reputation of man, would furnish a name more correspondent with their character; for example, a Ravaillac or a Marat. But as I would greatly prefer being the humble associate, even of the name of a good man, to the company of base and unworthy men, this must serve as an apology for assuming the name of the venerable Franklin, in preference to one resembling our authors of defamation.

With that dissimulation and utter disregard to truth, for which Alexander K. Marshall is remarkable. he has unblushingly ventured to assert. "that the Editors of the Western World never did derive any information from me, (for I possessed none,) or from my father's bureau, or as I believe—from any member of my family; yet the above declaration is not to be understood as extending to occasional remarks published in that paper. for I believe Several of the pieces have flowed from the pen of some of my family, who are willing to avow them." To those who have read the various productions contained in the Western World and other papers, the falsity of these assertions must be too apparent to require demonstration—I flatter myself it will be found in the sequel of this enquiry, that the bold assertion or denial of a fact, made by this man, is of itself, at no time to be taken as evidence of truth.

After having roundly denied any agency, either by himself or family. he cautiously proceeds to correct his first position, by observing that his unqualified declaration is not to be understood as extending to occasional remarks and "pieces," which he grants have flowed from the pen of his family. We are at length informed. that the family have indulged themselves in the effusions of their minds in the Western World. and if this acknowledgement is not sufficient to produce conviction of their agency in the management of that paper, I will offer for the consideration of the public, such facts as have come within my own reach. It is to be observed, that in the development of the wonderful conspiracy, we are told by the Editors, and we are now told by Alexander, that his sire did communicate to the executive of the United States, certain information "of the machinations of her foes."

We are also informed that this honorable communication is within the reach of the family, and that such parts as they may suppose will answer their purpose will be published; what that information was, and whose foes were, is sufficiently developed—we have a right to conclude that this precious discovery, was the origin of the slander—let us pursue its progress. It will perhaps be difficult to bring positive and direct testimony to show the agency of the several members of this family in the management of the Western World. Their hireling editors understand their business too well, to commit their patrons, by any express declarations, & it is only by pursuing the crooked windings of the malicious calumniators, we shall at length find them entangled in their own toils. The only species of testimony that can be produced to show their agency is derived from circumstantial facts.

Those facts are derived from the accidental observations of persons in different parts, and their declarations are on this occasion made evidence. It is a fact that the prospectus of the Western World, was handed to a gentleman in Washington, by a leading and respectable member of that family, before there was any explosion of its contents. The gentleman to whom the prospectus was handed, for the purpose of obtaining his aid, after some conversation with his republican friends, returned the paper with an express determination to have nothing to do with an attempt proceeding from a political source so doubtful. It is believed to be a fact capable of proof, that Humphrey Marshall applied to James M. Bradford, several years ago, to print a paper for a company, of the same principles on which the Western World is edited, and containing the same matter; and that an application was also made to a Mr. Anderson, similar to that made to Mr. J. Bradford. It is also a fact, that a packet, or packets, have been forwarded by Alexander Marshall to the Editors of the Western World, at an early period, from Washington, with very special and guarded directions. It is generally believed by the citizens of Mason, not under the influence of this family, and who have seen and observed. the essays in that paper, that an address to col. M'Dowell, signed A Farmer, was written by this same dissembling Alexander. The reasons on which this belief is founded, are, that there is a peculiarity of diction known to be possessed by him, and found in that address, and that in conversations with some gentlemen before the publication of that address, he expressed the same ideas as are contained in it ; he went farther, he observed as a proof of the entire failure of the memory of col. M'Dowell, his father-in-law, that he had seen the letter addressed to him by Mr Brown, within two or three years.

For the truth or absolute falsity of this assertion, and for his reverential respect to old age and parentage, I refer at present to the certificate given by Col. M'Dowell, already published, and to the pieces signed A Farmer, addressed to him and published in the Western World. From the certificate, we have reason to believe that neither col. M'Dowell or his hopeful son-in-law had seen the letter in question for ten years, and the probability is, that Alexander never saw it. If this man is not the author of that address, I presume it is one of those occasional essays, that have flowed from the pen of the family, and they will avow its true author; at all events it is a cruel and insidious attempt, worthy of those men, to destroy the veracity of a good man.

Added to those proofs and many others that may be collected, it is known to every man in any measure conversant with those people. that they are actuated by a common impulse, in every case affecting their power or wealth—the enemy of one is to them the enemy of all. This clannish temper is evinced to demonstration in their continued hostilities to the present administration of the general government, and from their acting in perfect unison on all political occasions.

In justice to myself, and to those whose feelings may have been unintentionally affected by me, I have to observe, that any strictures which may have fallen from me, respecting those calumniators as constituting a family, are to be applied only to those persons, whose names are brought into public view. I well know that there are persons allied to this family by marriage who are of real worth; and altho they are out of the reach of any pen. I should regret extremely being instrumental in giving them unnecessary pain. It is not true as Alexander Marshall says. for he is habitually incapable of adhering to the truth. That resentment against one of the family, has induced me to assail all. An utter stranger to many of this numerous and extended family, I have to observe, that those I do know, are sufficient in number and depravity, to be denominated the most undeserving men in existence. and I am unable to determine which I most despise. Satisfied that Humphrey, Thomas and Alexander Marshall, have a leading share in the present calumnies attempted to be imposed on the world, I have thought it a duty, to state the result of my reflections respecting their conduct. To say that I am exempt from resentment or indignation would be folly—I hope I shall always feel an honest indignation against those, who possess the same selfish meanness of soul, and maliciously defaming temper, that those men do. This declaration is not the result of a momentary impulse of passion, it is derived from the observation of twenty years, as the different subjects have passed before me in succession.

But to return to Alexander, this unworthy dissembler, under the specious garb of veneration to his sire. with all the solemn mockery of sympathetic affection, forgets that to the unfeeling and relentless malice of himself and his associates, we owe the unpleasant spectacle of a father dragged from his grave, and held up to public observation, to answer the wretched purposes of slander; his virtues or his vices might have slept in eternal silence, had not his degenerate descendants have thus wantonly sported with his name. Let then this whining dissembler shed his crocodile tears over the departed shade of his sire ; and as he has scattered his ashes in the wind, let it be his employment to collect them for the day of resurrection. Let us detect the crimes of the living and the dead may repose in peace. Disgusting as the task of spreading before the public, the vices of those I despise, may be if they assail, they shall be assailed.

To depict this aspiring branch of the calumniating band, it will be necessary to describe him in terms that may not be forgotten. Possessed by nature with a capacity to become useful at the bar, his mind has unfortunately taken the most vicious and perverse direction. Instead of relying on the energies of an ingenious mind, his whole soul and all its powers are employed to avoid the merits of a cause, and seize the defects of his adversary. Thus the perversion of truth, prevarication, quibble and every contemptible shift is resorted to, in order to obtain his object. In this pursuit he is utterly devoid of candor, sincerity and spirit. If detected and entangled in his own toils, as will frequently be the case—He shrinks before a manly truth; and often has it been seen, that his base and abject spirit would crouch before an indignant adversary at the bar. He would not bend like the Tiger the more effectually to leap on his prey, but like the Spaniel would basely lick the foot that spurned him.—Hateful as this picture may be, the pencil of Hogarth could not be more true. This man who has not yet arrived at the "mellow autumn" of his depravity, has ripened with astonishing rapidity in the art of dissimulation and falsehood, and at an early age he has amassed a store that will serve him to the age of Methuselah. By his tricks he has become the disgrace of his profession, and furnishes a lamentable proof that our Courts are sometimes contaminated with those excrescent limbs of law, whose minds reach only to its defects. It is such men, who have brought dishonor on a profession, in which the highest exercise of the human mind may be displayed. It is a real misfortune under which we labour that our courts are compelled to sit with solemn grimace, and dispose of the dilatory, frivolous and senseless jargon they call points of law. And because amidst the chaos of law and inadvertence of practice, the superior court should think differently from the subordinate court, or decide on points not agitated there; it is a wonderful cause of exultation to the quibbler.

It is scarcely worthy of remark, but as it shows the delay of justice to which we are exposed. I can declare that while listening with attention & anxiety to the researches of the attorneys of eminence upon the field of our bar, during a period of near ten years, in exploring grounds never before trodden, and searching after principles adapted to the various complicated cases presented to our view; infinitely less perplexity and agitation did occur, than in a single term among the younger branches who now crowd the bar. It is literally true, and almost the solitary truth, that has escaped Alexander Marshall, that we are continually employed in recording the follies that occur in court.—Bills of exceptions, motions to instruct juries, and attempts to dispose of points of fact, as well as of law, are the terrible weapons with which we are assailed; and the poor client is the sufferer. The intemperance or inadvertence of young men is frequently pardonable, but one such practitioner as this man, is sufficient to embroil and entangle in quibble an extensive bar; for he is not restrained by those obligations of honor, that govern a liberal practice.

This man has attributed to me an immense share of fallibility, because judgments rendered in the courts to which I am attached are often reversed. From his own dissembling lips may be procured his own condemnation ; for it is a fact that he is in the continued habit of invective against the court of Appeals, and without decency or dignity represents that court as weak and unsound. Thus it is, that this malicious and unhappy man discovers his weakness. He would even with his accustomed dissimulation and servility, venture at times, to flatter the inferior court at the expense of the superior court: but his hateful praise is the most bitter censure, and for my own part I feel at his approach, an involuntary sensation, that the venom of a snake is at hand.

But enough on this subject ; for the correctness of any of our decisions, I will not be responsible ; to God and our country I leave them ; for the purity of my intentions and my earnest and sincere desire to do justice I can vouch with a consciousness of integrity and an elevation of mind unknown to this man. The second number of Alexander's production has just reached me, and shall receive its answer without delay; his "emphatic call," shall receive an emphatic answer.

And altho' I am deprived of the benefit of a conclave, far removed from the persons implicated and destitute of that interchange of sentiment and information, from which much aid is to be received. I trust it will be in my power to defend myself against a host of such enemies. Deprived of the advantages which an access to records and the information of others would afford, I have to rely on the strong impressions, which passing occurrences have made on my own mind, during the trying and troubled periods of our infant establishments in Kentucky. I have therefore avoided detail more than I could have wished; and altho' the slanderers may cast their filth, I flatter myself it will recoil ; they will perhaps find with all their viperous venom, they "gnaw a file."

JOHN COBURN.