The Massachusetts Spy

FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY

"Starn off. Sir! starn off! the creature is in his flurry!"

The Pilot.

MR. EDITOR—My attention having been directed, a few days since, to an article occupying a very considerable portion of last week's Republican, called forth by a communication in the Spy, I was forcibly reminded of Long Tom Coffin's exclamation, after successfully planting the harpoon in a clumsy monster of the deep, as the animal endeavored, in vain, to extricate himself from the barbed iron by dodging and floundering. "Starn off! Stern off!" cried the old whaler, "the creature's in his flurry."

Through two columns and a half of bold assertion and violent invective, does the editor of that veracious print strive to elude the grasp of your correspondent, and to throw back the odium attached to his own profligate career, by casting absurd and silly imputations on yourself: but the labor is wholly lost. What regard can be paid by an enlightened public (whose opinion alone is worthy of consideration) to the allegations of an editor, who, from the beginning, has made his paper the stupid depository of personal malevolence and abuse. He talk of the personality of the Spy! why, sir, I venture to say there is scarcely an editor in the country who would not blush to be thought capable of perpetrating the wanton and unprovoked assaults on private individuals, which have appeared, from time to time, in the columns of the Republican. Even the more tender sex, whose claims to protection and respectful treatment, none but a brute would disregard, have been coarsely dragged before the public, and made to answer for the political offences of their fathers and brothers. I hazard the assertion, that the annals of the periodical press in this country do not furnish another instance of so disgraceful and pointed an allusion to young and innocent females, as was contained in a late number of that paper. And yet, it is the publisher of such stuff, who now charges the Spy with "infamous personality," because previous to the late election it spoke freely of certain Jackson candidates for office! And, to corroborate his own declaration, he has the testimony of the editor of the Yeoman, who positively avers that he has no where read such a bad piece this year, as a certain article in the Spy! These editors should have shaken hands long ago; they are equally entitled to the respect of the community for their patriotic and disinterested services.

A Looker On.