Monongalia Mirror

Richmond Friday evening,
May 21st, 1852.

To the Publisher of the Dispatch:

I read this evening, or the first time,
the leader in your paper of Thursday (yesterday)
morning, headed "A Momentous question
Settled." Such an article might be
permitted to pass unnoticed if published
in a petty party newspaper; but when such
remarks are repeated in a newspaper, altogether,
as I understand yours to be, independent
of parties, it seems due to an injured
and most estimable gentleman to
ask a small space in your columns.

The writer of this has known Mr. McDonald,
of the House of Delegates, from
his boyhood to the present time. He received
a very liberal education, about all
of "worldly gear," that he did receive
from his worthy widowed mother and his
guardian. By his own exertions alone,
first endeavoring to ascertain what was
right and then going ahead, he has attained
the position he now occupies. With
due allowance for others. I know, there is
not a member in the Legislature possessing
finer feeling than he does. Why then
continue such slang as has been in your
columns for the last week? Articles calculated
to lessen that usefulness and influence
to which an unobtrusive and worthy
member of the legislature is always entitled.
What has been said injurious to
Mr. McDonald’s feelings and those of his
friends, can have no influence upon those
who know him best—upon his neighbors
in "Old Monongalia;" it is only for this
community and those unacquainted with
his high standing at home, that these lines
have been written in his behalf.

I shall not attempt to argue the impropriety
of newspapers attacking individuals
without first "knowing their man"—knowing
really where the lash may fall. This
is a grave question for editors themselves
to consider and shape their actions from.

This humble communication has been
prepared without Mr. McD's knowledge
or consent, by a friend to

JUSTICE.