The Virginia Gazette

Messrs. Dixon & Hunter,

FINDING my Name mentioned in an Advertisement by one Richard Phillips, of Louisa County, with Circumstances of Disgrace, which the Circulation of your Paper may publish beyond the Limits of his or my immediate Acquaintance, or the Reach of any personal Satisfaction his audacious Fallacy may entitle me to take of him, I am compelled, in my own Justification, to make this Appeal to the Public.

Some Months ago, being sick in Bed, I received a most abusive and insulting Letter from Phillips (whose Name as well as Person I was an entire Stranger to) requiring me to meet him at Bedford Courthouse with a Negro of his, who he said was in my Possession; though the Behaviour of Mr. Phillips on this Occasion merited Nothing but Disregard and Contempt, yet, desirous of knowing on what Foundation he could claim any Negro I had; I wrote him a true Account of my Situation, and how impossible it was for me to meet him at that Time, and appointed him a Day to meet me at Mr. John Brown’s, in Cumberland County, a Place much nearer his own Home, and more convenient to me, on Account of other Appointments. For what Reason Mr. Phillips did not think proper to meet me there I know not; but from a Discovery of some of his previous Manoeuvres, a very shrewd Conjecture will immediately occur: Mr. Phillips, it seems, had been some Time in Confederacy with Julius Deane and John Dyer, two notorious Horse Thieves; many Letters and Consultations passed, which at Length ended in a most notable Plan, to steal a Negro they heard I had in the Watauga Settlement, and with this Laudable Resolution they set out under the Conduct of Deane, but, unfortunately for them, the Leader of this Virtuous Triumvirate before they reached their Place of Rendezvous was seized by the Hand of the civil Magistrate and committed to Salisbury Gaol, for endeavouring to live by the Practice of his Profession. Had Phillips and Dyer been honoured with the same Notice, the public Prints might have brought us something more worthy of Notice than the base and wicked Calumnies of so atrocious a Slanderer. If I should be thought to have departed in any Degree from the Line of common Decency, let the Provocation I have received be my Excuse. I am sorry to recriminate, yet Mr. Phillips’s unjust and unprovoked Attack upon me, has made it necessary. For aught I know, his Reputation may have been formerly respectable; if so, he must excuse me for applying to him, the homely old Proverb, "Birds of a Feather, &c." The World will judge him by the Company he keeps. That he may have been told what he thus confidently asserts, is possibly true; but if his Author be worthy of the smallest Credit, I ought to be called to a stricter Account, than having it published in a Gazette, and to such I am always ready to answer. But let Mr. Phillips beware of thus publicly defaming Characters, upon the Information of such Men as he has of late associated with. The bare-faced Inconsistency of his Performance may not be thought to deserve so elaborate an Answer; but the bare-faced Audacity of Mr. Phillips deserves much severer Treatment; and I trust the Public will excuse me for thus breaking in upon their Amusements, by holding up the base and malicious Slanderer as an Object of general Execration.

JOSEPH COOK.