Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

WEDNESDAY
...From the National Intelligencer
The following Communication, from a gentleman whose official situation of Clerk in the Department of State entitle his information to the serious attention of our readers. Comment is needless-
The address of Robert Smith. Esq, to the citizens of the United States has placed me in situation where silence would give a sanction to imposition. My relative official position with regard to the late Secretary of State, may have impressed the public mind with ideas of the gratitude which I may be supposed to owe him; and certainly- there has been no period of time at which I have not endeavored to respect him. It is for the world to decide how far a personal motive ought to weigh against the performance of an act of public justice But it appears to me that no obligation of friendship imposes the duty of concealment on one party. when the other has perverted facts and employed that perversion for an improper purpose Without pretending to satisfy the scruples of men who have hatreds to gratify or views of ambition. to accomplish, I must call the attention of my fellow citizens to this simple truth, that it has been the voluntary act of Mr. Smith himself, that he has placed me in a dilemma which compels me to speak or to be faithless to the government which I have sworn to support. It is to me, I can assure him, the most painful of all tasks and in executing it with every possible tenderness, I do it with a reluctance that gives a pang to my heart. :
I declare, then, to the American people that the letter inserted at page 17 of the pamphlet of Mr. Smith, addressed to Gen. John Armstrong, and the letter inserted at page 23 of the same pamphlet, addressed to Gen. Turreau, were written by myself with the exception of one paragraph in the latter, which I understand was written by Mr. Madison that they are without any particular dictation from Mr. Smith, the production of my pen; that the motives and the views connected with the letter to General Turreau, concomitantly declared by Mr Smith, are known to me ( that those motives and those views involved considerations of -a personal nature, hostile to Mr. Madison and his administration, more than they embraced any views of public good ; that at the time of writing the letter to gen. Turreau, I verbally remonstrated with Mr. Smith against the proceeding in as bold a manner as decorum would permit; that views, both personal and political, were connected with that letter and with the whole of Mr. Smith's subsequent official conduct and that, generally, I am under the full conviction. from actual knowledge, that the facts and the inferences presented to public view in Mr. Smith's address are fabricated, misrepresented, or strained, calculated more to. foment. the passions of party than to develope the truth and I am persuaded. from Mr. Smith's own declarations, that with respect to the alledged existence of French influence in the cabinet, Mr. Smith does not himself seriously believe what he insinuates. .
With respect to the two letters in question, .I wrote them for the. good of my country : At all times I have been willing to lend the exertions of my mind for her benefit. Whilst the letters were appropriated to no other use, I never claimed them But now that they have been converted into instruments of reproach to the government, and prostituted to unauthorised purposes. I feel myself justified in declaring them mine. I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, that I consider this declaration as no. otherwise important than as it exposes a fraud practised upon the community. If Mr. Smith Or those who are more devoted to him than to republican principles, should object to this statement as being vague and indefinite he or they have nothing more to do than to authorise me to descend to particulars and to speak without any reserve.
J.B. COLVIN..
July 22, 1811