The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

To THE PUBLIC.

If men of sense should think further notice of Mr. Greenleaf unnecessary from me, let them reflect on the deep injury meditated against me, and the necessity I am under of dispelling every kind of doubt relating to the Tontine property. Feeling I have reputation at stake, I am careful to hazard no assertion, for which I am not ready to adduce the proof. Because I would not descend to the folly of giving him a trifle in Tontine shares for the assignees, this man attacked the titles at first in secret, and growing bolder by impunity at length in the public papers. I proved to the conviction of every reader, that his claim was destitute of the slightest shade of support. Active to reduce other characters to a level with his own, his next step was to insinuate charges of corruption, against a majority of the commissioners, who, according to him, contrived to resell some lots as low as 5 dollars at sales where I was a considerable purchaser, and all this too, he was prepared, he said, to prove in a court of chancery. This imposed on me the necessity of denying the truth of his facts, which even now, he dare not say he believed to be true, when he asserted them with so much confidence nor that his glaring misrepresentation, was not wilful. The Commissioners, I have before shown, never did resell a single lot for less than 80 dollars, and interest and costs. Being unable to maintain the color of claim to any lot in the Tontine, on the ground of illegality in the re-sale, or corruption on the part of the commissioners, he now attempts a new imposition on the public, and represents that there are chancery suits existing between him, and God knows who; the decision which will settle not only what he calls conflicting claims to the Tontine lots between him and me, but our pretensions as men of veracity, to the countenance of society. Shameful, disgraceful effrontery! To what will not the man descend who can be guilty of such miserable attempts to mislead the public? Is it impossible for him to speak or to write, without aiming to deceive? I pledge my honor, that no Chancery suit exists between him and me--and that none exists between him and any other person, the result of which will, in any shape affect the title to a single Tontine lot--or other lots in Washington, depending on the Commissioners right to sell; or their correctness in making the resales. This man speaks of a suit by me against him, as if I ought to have mentioned it before. It is a suit for scandalizing my titles, of no consequence to the public. He mentions too, in a new notification, certain property as having been sold by Mr. J. Templeman and myself, the legal estate to which he says is still in his assignees, whom he has not been paid for it. I wish to discuss no more questions than necessary in a News Paper; none of this property is in the Tontine and I am sure the public will believe my assurance, that this unhappy man has not been more fortunate in his statement in the present, than in every other instance. After all, he boasts of enjoying the full confidence of those for whom he acts, and this too, on full knowledge of him. They have no reason to thank him for the boast--and I must be pardoned for questioning its veracity, for I know some of the gentlemen to be men of reputation. But if he does enjoy their confidence it is but poor consolation for the contempt and derision of the rest of mankind, which conduct such as he has exhibited in the National Intelligencer, if that stood alone, could not fail to secure--to him. For the justice of this inference, I appeal to the feelings of every man of honor, who reads that Paper.

BENJ. STODDERT