Phenix Gazette

The following satisfactory explanation is in accordance with the uniform course of the National Journal, and therefore no more than what we expected. We never believed that the Editor of the Journal intended to impute a dishonorable course to us, but we were solicitous that others should not be allowed to draw unfavorable conclusions from the equivocal term used by the Journal.

From the National Journal of Saturday.

The editor of the Alexandria Gazette is in error, if he supposes we intended to charge him with an intention to misrepresent. It had indeed escaped our recollection, if we ever knew it, that the report of a challenge being sent by Mr. Lloyd to Mr. Randolph, originated in the Gazette. This fact, however, being admitted, we have no objection to state our firm belief that the editor of that paper received the information from what he deemed sufficient authority, and published it with the most entire confidence in its accuracy. We will even go farther. Taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration—the excitement of the moment—the provocation given—the evident agitation of Mr. Lloyd—and, lastly, the transmission of a letter from him to Mr. Randolph, it is not to be wondered at if the friends of Mr. Lloyd themselves did, at the moment, draw a prima facie inference that a challenge was sent. It is not improbable that such an opinion might have escaped in the form of a conjecture. If the fact were so, we are not disposed to attach blame to any one; for we believe there was no disposition anywhere to make a wilful misrepresentation. We repeat our belief that Mr. Lloyd acted throughout, in a manner calculated to sustain himself in the opinion of his constituents and his country. Whether he would have injured himself in the opinion of his constituents, by engaging in a duel, is a question which cannot surely require to be discussed at a time when the strong prejudice which exists in the Eastern States on the subject of that description of appeal is so universally understood.

That accomplished gentleman and distinguished legislator, Mr. Lloyd of Massachusetts, has resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. Most sincerely do we regret the occurrence, but we are not surprised. It is no longer an honor to be in a Senate where a monster of depravity presides, and where the most remorseless and adroit villifier that ever disgraced a deliberative body, is permitted to consume more than half of the time of the Senate in the indiscriminate butchery of private character. While Randolph and Calhoun remain in that once dignified body, no honorable man can hold his seat without pain and hazard of all that is dear to him. Others, we fear, will follow the example of Mr. Lloyd. We copy the following letter from the Boston Patriot, which paper recommends the Hon. Nathaniel Silsbee as the successor of Mr. L.

RESIGNATION OF MR. LLOYD.

We have obtained for publication a copy of the letter addressed to Governor Lincoln by Mr. Lloyd, making known his resignation as a member of the Senate of the United States, which is here annexed:

Washington, May 23, 1826.

SIR—In accordance with the intention I had made known to you the last autumn, and the execution of which, was then intermitted at the special request you were pleased to make, I have now the honor to inform you, I hereby resign my seat in the Senate of the United States.

A state of health not very firm, and which not having materially improved, rendering it doubtful, if it would be in my power to devote, that undivided, and unceasing attention to the many and arduous duties devolving on the official station I have held, in a manner sufficiently useful to the public, or acceptable to myself, have been among the leading inducements for my retiring from a situation alike elevated in itself, and endeared to me by many highly interesting associations.

In communicating this information to the honorable Legislature, I pray you Sir, to accompany it, with an expression of the deep and grateful sense I entertain of the honor that has been conferred on me by repeated elections to an office of so much dignity and importance; and also with an aspiration to the Giver of every good gift, that the time-honored, and enlightened Commonwealth of Massachusetts, first among the foremost in the assertion of our rights, and in the struggles of the Revolution; and whose foundations were so early and broadly laid, in the intelligence & patriotism of her Citizens, and the usefulness and equality of her Institutions altho' shorn by her paternal liberality of a large part of her territory; may long be distinguished by love of Country, by a fearless independence of opinion, and a marked adherence to her own rights, with a due respect for those of others; and replete, with habits of morality, ample means of education, and a vigorous and successful enterprize and industry; ever be, and remain, a prominent and powerful member of this great and most favored family of Republics.

With sentiments of the highest respect for your Excellency, and the Legislature, I have the honor to be, sir, your and their very faithful and obedient servant.

JAMES LLOYD.

To His Excellency Governor Lincoln.