The Recorder

FROM THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE.

TO JAMES CHEETHAM,

EDITOR OF

THE AMERICAN CITIZEN

SIR,

With the greatest reluctance I come forward to address a person, whose name is not attached to anything virtuous and honorable, or connected with genius or talent, but which is notorious for infamy, and celebrated for the most scurrilous abuse, which conveys to every American the idea of hardened profligacy, of audacious impudence; in short, of every species of vice and crime, that the human imagination can conceive.

The patronage which a few gentlemen, in order to promote their own ends, afford to you, is the only apology which any mortal can offer to the public, for insulting them with the odious name of James Cheetham.

I shall therefore regard you at present, as having from the Clinton family a passport of respect, such as may entitle you to receive and answer a few questions that I shall put to you, without either degrading myself, or injuring the feelings of the subscribers to the Virginia Gazette.

You assert that I am, next to Callender, the vilest of all wretches, and the most abandoned of all sinners. Pray in what respect: Mention some facts or actions of my life, to confirm your assertions.

You declare that I am an Atheist. Please to condescend upon some sentiments that I have expressed in the trifles which I have written, that will warrant such an assertion.

Having done this, you will oblige me also, by giving candid answers to the following questions respecting yourself, as by proving the rectitude of your own life in any respect, you will add considerably to the degree of belief, that may possibly be given to your charges against me.

1st. Was or was not your father hung for horse stealing at Lancaster in England, or was it some other person of the same name, a stranger, or a relation of yours?

2d. Did not your brother Benjamin apply to John Douglas of Corlear's Hook, a few months since, and demand from him a certificate that your father was not hung? Did the same John Douglas decline or give a certificate? If he gave one, produce it.

3d. Was you carried aboard the ship in which you embarked from Liverpool, as a chest of dry goods; or did you walk on deck boldly, and pay your passage?

4th. After your father's death, did you change your name from Cheetman to Cheetham; or was your name always Cheetham?

5th. Soon after your arrival in New-York, were you and your brothers publicly taken before the sitting magistrate on a charge of breaking people's doors, or was it a malicious report that was propagated against you?

6th. Was your brother Benjamin once since his arrival obliged to find bail, on an accusation preferred against him for setting fire to his neighbour's house; or was there only a false rumor to that purpose?

7th. Dare you deny that you forged a letter in my name, in the narrative which you and Denniston published against Col. Burr?

8th. Dare you deny that you requested Mr. George Baron to propagate a malicious slander against Col. Burr, informing him at the same time that it would assist your cause?

9th. Have you any conception of the persons who stole Bronson's letters? What punishment is due to letter stealing? Ought letter breakers to be hung, flogged at a cart's tail like Billy Dann, set astride on a pole like the Calcutta organ, or paraded through the streets as your brother John was at Manchester, or what punishment would you devise for such a crime?

10. When you dined with Mr. Jefferson, last winter, did you acquaint him that you was the purest patriot and most innocent man alive? Did you tell him that your father was never hung; that you yourself never committed treason or sedition; that you never was under the necessity of being concealed for days and nights together in an old chest; that you never was arrested for breaking people's doors in New-York; that none of your brothers were ever bailed on a suspicion of setting fire to houses; and moreover that you never stole letters?

JOHN WOOD,