Alexandria Gazette & Advertiser

ALEXANDRIA.
THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 25.

Extract of a letter to the Editor of the Norfolk Herald, dated Washington, March 18, 1824.

'Dear Sir--The sentence of the Court Martial upon Mr. Kennon is a full acquittal upon every charge and specification--but the Court go no further!

'He is ordered to the Pacific in the Peacock--and if report tells true, this is a step by the 'powers that rule the roast' to stifle all further inquiry about the famous Georgia libel!--for, it is understood here, the Secretary will make no part of the proceedings public but the sentence--and making Kennon's sailing nearly simultaneous with a knowledge of his sentence, puts it out of his power to get any thing else for that purpose.

'No steps are to be taken against the prosecutor, though the Court here declared that the charges and specifications 'are not proved!'

I make this known to you to satisfy the curiosity I know your readers have about the late Court Martial, and suggest it as due to justice and the honor of the Navy, whether it will not be expedient for Lt. Kennon to publish all that he can, to wit: his defence. The public will from that, I am told, be able to comprehend something of a transaction of which they are to be officially kept ignorant, but which they have only to know to stamp with their severest reprehension.

'The officers here, under the rank of captain,' hope some independent member of Congress will call for the proceedings of the Court Martial: Amen say I.'

[The sentence of the Court has been received by Lt. Kennon, but, we understand, will not be published by him, although authorized to do so, it being understood that it is the intention of the Department to publish it. We can state, however, that it agrees with the representation in the foregoing extract. It is also true that Lieut. K. has received orders to take passage in the Peacock, to resume his station as first lieutenant of the frigate United States in the Pacific. The Peacock is on the eve of her departure, so that all possibility of obtaining satisfaction for the libellous attack on him in the Savannah paper, is officially cut off!]