Republican Herald

From the N. Y. Tribune

RHODE ISLAND—HENRY D'WOLFE

A good deal has been said, in the different journals, about the course pursued by D'Wolfe in the late contest in Rhode Island.—Endeavors have been made to blacken his reputation, and no stone has been left unturned in order to bring about this desirable result. Matters in which the public can have no interest, and which bear neither upon the principles involved in the contest, nor upon his reputation, have been industriously raked up to prejudice the public mind against the character of this individual. All tyrants resort to these methods—it is characteristic of the spirit which rules the Charter party; and although they have not reported of him as was reported of the persecuted Waldenses, that they had an eye in the middle of their foreheads, and tusks like wild boars; yet they have endeavored to trace his lineage to desperadoes, and to make him out devoid of principle. Even his name has been made a handle for defamation.—His name was changed by the Legislature of Massachusetts, which could not have been done had his character been tainted in the least degree. The name of D'Wolfe was given by Charlotte, the daughter of William D'Wolfe, Esq., and not by his relations, as has been erroneously stated.

It was not, however, to be expected that the course pursued by him should give satisfaction to the Charter party—he had his own party to serve; and we have good authority for believing that "no man can serve two masters." Enjoying the respect of his fellow citizens in his own State, having been appointed a delegate to the State Convention, and afterwards to the County Convention, and retaining an unblemished reputation, he left home at the request of the Suffrage party to risk his all in the cause of human liberty and equal rights. Having been a consistent and uncompromising democrat from his youth upward, he entered into the business conscientiously and disinterestedly, under the influence of the same high souled prowess that actuated La Fayette, when he left comfort and peace behind him to sustain the cause of liberty in a distant land. If a man is to be censured for coming from another State to fight for freedom, what should be said of hireling troops from abroad, sent to rivet the chains of slavery, and sustain in our midst the charter of a British King?

This emanates from one, who, although not particularly interested in the result of the Rhode Island contest, has known D'Wolfe from his boyhood, and can attest that no sinister motive has led him to espouse the cause of the Suffrage party, other than that which induced one Joseph Palmer to leave his plough in the midst of the furrow, and hasten to pitch his tent on a little eminence near Boston, called BUNKER HILL.