Semi Weekly Standard

Messrs. Rayner and Barringer.

The following letter of the Hon. D. M. Barringer, is copied from the "American Organ." Washington City, of date August 8th:

Washington, August 8, 1855.

To the Editor of the American Organ.

SIR: At the request of Hon. D. M. Barringer, I send you for publication entire, his letter to me dated 28th July, from which I had heretofore published extracts embracing all the facts stated by that gentleman in relation to his conversation with the Nuncio of the Pope at Madrid, concerning the appointment of Postmaster General Campbell. It is due to myself to state, that the entire letter would have been originally published by me, had it not contained a reference to some correspondence between Messrs. Barringer and Rayner, which did not concern me, nor bear upon the facts in issue, and which therefore it was not, in my judgment, proper for me to publish.

Very respectfully,

V. ELLIS.

SARATOGA, July 23, 1855.

Dear Sir: I did not receive till last evening your note of the 13th instant, addressed to me at Baltimore, and covering your card to the public, in which reference is made to a conversation between the Nuncio of the Pope at Madrid and myself, about the appointment of Mr. Campbell as a member of the present Cabinet at Washington. If I had sooner seen or heard of the contents of your card, I should have deemed it my duty to reply at once to that portion of it which refers to myself and to this matter.

You are mistaken as to the purport of the remarks made to me by the representative of the Pope at Madrid. It was not that he knew beforehand that Mr. Campbell would be appointed, and as a member of the Catholic Church, or that he knew anything about it before the appointment was actually made. What I have said, and what I repeat is, that before I had any certain news of the formation of the Cabinet, and while its constitution was still in doubt, and the subject of conjecture in the public mind at Madrid, he told me that Mr. Campbell was appointed, and that he was a Catholic; which was the first information I had of either fact.

I did not at all suppose that he had any previous knowledge of an intention to appoint this gentleman to office, or that he knew, or had any reason to believe it was done, in pursuance of any bargain or intrigue to this effect, on the part of any persons whatsoever.

The inference I made was, that the appointment of a Catholic to this high office, being naturally a cause of much interest and satisfaction to the church of that faith, especial pains had been taken in some quarter, to communicate the earliest intelligence of that fact to the leading members of the Catholic priesthood.

It is proper to add that, having seen in a Raleigh paper a brief, and what appeared to be an imperfect report of the speech recently made in Washington by the Hon. Kenneth Rayner, in which there occurred a similar statement, though somewhat different in detail from that contained in your card, and in which my name was quoted as authority, I took the earliest opportunity on the 6th instant, to write him a note for the purpose of correcting the erroneous impressions which might so readily be made on the public mind, however unintentionally, from such a reference to a casual conversation in social intercourse, without a written statement of the facts.

I am, very truly yours, &c.,

D. M. BARRINGER.

To Vespasian Ellis, Esq., Washington city.

We invite particular attention to the foregoing letter, and especially to those parts of it which we have printed in italics.

On the 18th of July, the Raleigh Register stated that Mr. Barringer would doubtless confirm the statement of Mr. Rayner, that the Pope's Nuncio knew beforehand that Mr. Campbell, a Catholic, would be appointed; and on the 21st July, that paper said:

"We are authorized to state that the Hon. D.M. Barringer has written a letter (which will be forthcoming in a day or two,) reasserting and confirming his statement relative to the conversation which took place between himself and the Pope's Nuncio in Madrid, and the truth of which the Washington "Union," with no knowledge of the facts, has thought proper to deny."

Mr. Rayner spoke at Weldon on the 20th, and referred to and read from a statement-(we suppose it was the letter,)-with which, he said, Mr. Barringer had furnished him; yet no letter, no statement, though repeatedly called for, was given to the public. Meantime, the infamous falsehood, that President Pierce had appointed Mr. Campbell to the Post-Office Department as the result of a bargain between himself and the Catholics, was going the rounds of the K. N. papers and being stated by the K. N. leaders from the stump-Mr. Rayner having the letter in his possession, the Register promising to publish it, and the people thus trifled with, evaded, and deceived, so far as such a story could deceive them! On the 19th of July—thirteen days after Mr. Barringer had written to Mr. Rayner-the latter gentleman sends an extract from the letter to Mr. Vespasian Ellis, at Washington: and Mr. Ellis, on the 26th July, published this extract, with a letter of his own on the subject, in the "American Organ." "A few days since," says Mr. Ellis, I heard from Mr. Rayner-"a few days since," says Mr. Rayner, I heard from Mr. Barringer. Why was not the letter of Mr. Barringer to Mr. Rayner, of date July 6, at once published here? Wherefore the garbling, the bandying about from point to point, the promises of the Register to publish? In one place Mr. Rayner says, in his letter to Mr. Ellis, "a few days since I received a letter from Mr. Barringer, dated Niagara Falls, July 6,"—in another place in the same letter he says, "I will quote to you, verbatim, the language used by him, in an extract from this letter, just received," &c. "A few days since," it seems, means "just received,"—a letter had been "just" thirteen days on the way from Niagara Falls to Raleigh

It is apparent, too, from the letter of Mr. Rayner to Mr. Ellis, published as stated in the "Organ," that there is an issue of veracity between Mr. Rayner and Mr. Barringer. Mr. Rayner, it appears, informed Mr. Barringer, in Baltimore, in June, that he had spoken publicly of what he had told him about the Pope's Nuncio "having stated to him before he (Mr. B.) had heard, and before the news of the same had reached Madrid, of the formation of Mr. Pierce's cabinet, that he (the said Nuncio) could tell him one man that would be in the cabinet, to wit: Mr. Campbell of Pennsylvania, a member of the Roman Catholic Church." "This was," continues Mr. Rayner, "as I had received the statement from Mr. Barringer in the first instance, and it was thus that I had spoken of it. I asked Mr. Barringer, if I had represented him correctly, for that I should probably speak of it again, and I wished to be sure. that I might give the statement correctly. Mr. B. replied that I had stated the matter correctly, and then went on to relate the occasion and incidents of this remark to him by the Pope's Nuncio."

We leave Mr. Rayner and Mr. Barringer to settle this between themselves

Mr. Rayner "thinks," in his letter to Mr. Ellis, that the statement published from Mr. Barringer's letter of the 6th, "establishes the charge long since made, and believed by thousands, that there was an understanding, to call it by no worse name, that the Roman Catholic vote should be given to Mr. Pierce, and that he, in turn, should give to that church a seat in his cabinet, as well as many other high positions"-Mr. Barringer, in his letter given above, fully meets and repels this charge of Mr. Rayner; for he says he did not at all suppose that the Nuncio knew, or had any reason to believe that Mr. Campbell was appointed "in pursuance of any bargain or intrigue to this effect, on the part of any persons whatsoever."

We are indebted to the pen of an able correspondent for the following views as to the conduct in this matter of Messrs. Barringer and Rayner.

For the Standard.

To Messrs. Barringer and Rayner: Nothing has occurred during the late canvass so well deserving and so likely to receive the public censure, as the disgraceful conduct you Honorable gentlemen have thought fit to practice in regard to your ghost story about the Nuncio. It appears that during the last winter, Mr. Barringer, then a Commoner, communicated to Mr. Rayner, then a Senator, the extraordinary fact that the Pope's Nuncio had told him that Judge Campbell had been or would be appointed a member of the President's Cabinet, and that he was a Roman Catholic. No doubt Mr. Barringer did think it most extraordinary, and well calculated to detract from his dignity, that any one in the City of Madrid-between which place and the City of Paris there is a daily communication-should have heard of a matter so very important before His Excellency. Now, when this important conversation occurred between the Pope's Nuncio and Mr. Barringer the public were not informed. Mr. Rayner's first version of the story was before the fourth of March, and that the Nuncio had said, as reported by Mr. Barringer, that Judge Campbell would be a member of the Cabinet; and upon this version Mr. Rayner founded the grave charge that the Democratic party was rotten and President Pierce corrupt, in having thus bargained for the Catholic vote. Now, even had this version of the story been correct, it was most certainly very slight evidence to found so grave a charge upon. But what will the public now think of these honorable gentlemen,-the truth coming out after the mischief has been done? That it was after the fourth of March that the Pope's Minister told Mr. Barringer that Mr. Campbell was a member of the Cabinet!

There can be but one opinion among all candid men in regard to such conduct, and that is, unqualified censure, if not something worse. The result of the election shows plainly what credence the public gave to Mr. Rayner's charge. Mr. Rayner had just as well have said our liberties were to be taken away, and the whole country brought under the control of the Catholics, by the appointment of Patrick McGowan to be Post-office Agent on the Raleigh and Gaston Road. This charge would have had as much weight as the Cabinet story, and in all probability would have been made, but for the fact that McGowan had been recommended by Mr. Shepard and others, now Know Nothings.

This whole story, from beginning to end, was highly ridiculous, and can reflect anything but credit on those who have invented or attempted to use it. The mountain has been in labor, and lo! a mouse is born!

NO GHOST