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Winchester Gazette
Winchester, Virginia
What is this article about?
Daniel Keith responds to Joseph Trout and Peter Kurtz's accusations in a newspaper, defending himself against claims of falsehood and evasion of justice after reporting their alleged assault on a Black woman in Staunton. He explains his nighttime departure was by stagecoach and dismisses them as contemptible.
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ALTHOUGH I much regret to trouble the public with any of my affairs, yet I deem it a duty incumbent on me to say something in reply to your publication in Mr. Collett's paper of the 11th ult. in which you have charged me with having asserted a falsehood against you, and when threatened with punishment, evaded the justice of the laws by flying from it under the covert of night. The charge made against you you say is false.
I admit it is of too obscene & indelicate a nature to particularize, or atill the care of modesty with, as a Negro Wench is the unfortunate heroine of the tale, and however sad the catastrophe, it might have been more melancholy ; for, had your attack been made upon a female of your own color, instead of the mild punishment that has been inflicted upon you (that of being bound over) you might have been candidates for the Penitentiary or Gallows.
As to my evading the law by flying under the covert of night, it is totally false, for it was well known to you as well as the most of my acquaintances that I intended leaving Staunton for this place on a visit to my relations, and my starting at night was unavoidable, as I took the stage which leaves town after night. I could not have supposed that there existed on earth two men so lost and callous to all sense or shame that after having attempted the chastity of a Negro Wench which caused the interference of the civil authority should be so hardened as to come forward in a public paper to disavow a fact so well known in your place of residence, and that the communication of the circumstance in a letter to a friend of mine, tho innocently intended, should have so irritated you as to induce you to come forward and be the public Panders of your own infamy. Was your characters as well known abroad as in your neighborhood, I should have thought it unnecessary to make any reply, and although I have not been so lavish in applying the epithet of scoundrel to your names as you have to mine, it is by no means because you do not deserve it, considering you too contemptible for further notice, I dismiss you.
DANIEL KEITH.
Christiansburgh, Nov. 20.
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Letter to Editor Details
Author
Daniel Keith
Recipient
Messrs. Joseph Trout And Peter Kurtz
Main Argument
keith denies asserting falsehoods or evading justice, explains his legitimate departure from staunton by stagecoach, and accuses trout and kurtz of attempting to assault a black woman, resulting in their being bound over, while dismissing them as contemptible for publicly denying the known incident.
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