The Virginia Gazette

Mr. PRINTER,

WHEN I some time ago gave an account of the proceedings on the bailment of Col. Chiswell, I little expected I should ever find occasion to add any thing further upon that subject; but am really constrained, by Mr. Wythe's publication in the papers of last week, to apprise your readers of a few circumstances, by which they may very probably be led into an error, from that Gentleman's omitting a material distinction, that ought to have been made, especially as it was plainly pointed out to him.

He might very well have spared the insinuation whereby he expresses his hopes that he shall not be "responsible for any publication founded on his deposition which it does not support," had he considered that I did not undertake, as I told him (nor indeed could I think it necessary) to specify the depositions separately, but only to acquaint the publick with the substance of all that was laid before us, as nearly as I could recollect it, without so much as mentioning the names of the deponents. If however, in consequence of this, Mr. Wythe had suffered the least reproach, I could not but commend his zeal to acquit himself; it was therefore with great frankness and pleasure, when he called upon me for that purpose, that I furnished him with exact copies of the depositions, which were first compared with the originals.

Who could have thought, after all this studied exactness in a copy prepared for that Gentleman, that he would have published any thing which was not contained in this original deposition, without plainly distinguishing the addition he thought fit to make to it, in such a manner that no one could be deceived? This however being really the case, I must, as well in justice to my own as to the reputations of the Gentlemen who concurred with me in the bailment, declare, from the original depositions now in my possession, that the genuine deposition of Mr. Wythe ends with that sentence where he says the deceased "turned suddenly round, and then Chiswell dropt the point of his sword, and held it with an extended arm, without advancing;" and that all which follows, relating to Mr. Routlidge's sinking "in Mr. Carrington's arms," his opinion that Routlidge was dead, and Col. Chiswell's confirmation of it by replying "yes, you may take him away, I have killed him," adding as his reason that "he felt him upon the point of his sword, which no other man could know;" though they might have been proved at the Examining Court, as Mr. Wythe says, are facts not contained in either of the depositions, nor, to the best of my remembrance, mentioned by either of the deponents on their examination.

Perhaps I might be thought wanting in justice to Mr. Wythe were I not to take notice that, upon his mentioning to my son, Mr. John Blair, something he had omitted in his deposition, and its being objected to him that nothing ought to appear as part thereof which was not really contained in it, he said he would distinguish what he added from the rest by publishing it in italics; and for that purpose it was, I suppose, that in one of the papers the addition was printed in a different character from the deposition itself, though no such distinction appears in the other:

But surely it was incumbent on Mr. Wythe, when he was endeavouring to correct what he supposed a mistake in a former publication, to have used a little more caution; if he had recollected any material circumstance, which was not made a part of his original deposition, wrote with his own hand, he ought candidly to have acknowledged it, and taken the blame to himself.

It is remarkable that, in the manner Mr. Wythe has published the depositions, Jesse Thomas too is made to depose the substance of the additional passage above mentioned; for he begins his deposition with a confirmation of all the facts mentioned by Mr. Wythe in his.

I am sorry to find so many complaints made in the country of Col. Chiswell's being admitted to bail; I was applied to as one of the Judges of the General Court, and was of opinion, for the reasons I formerly gave, that the case admitted of bail; if I was guilty of an error, I can truly say it was merely in judgment: I am so far from inclining to infringe the laws of our excellent constitution that I always have, and ever shall think it my duty, to maintain and support them to the utmost of my power.

The insinuations of partiality being shown on this occasion are equally groundless, and indecent; the several authors of the many virulent pieces which have appeared in print seem to take it for granted that hardly any other man would have been admitted to bail under like circumstances, but they should first have produced an instance of sufficient bail being offered and refused by the Judges before they ventured to censure them as partial.

JOHN BLAIR.