Gazette Of The United States

Mr. Smith late Sheriff of Otsego County, New-York, concludes an address to the public in the following terms.

I cannot help giving it as my opinion that it was but a shallow pretence for so horrid a violation of public right, and that the evidence produced was by far too slender, on which to have determined a matter of much less importance. I despise the person who made the affidavit, they mention, with a view to insinuate a fraud on my part—and I despise the man, who, under pretence of believing it, condemned my conduct without a hearing, or even informing me that I was suspected.—I know that I have a conscience, and that I sustain a character which will support me under all the calumnies of party—and, I possess a firmness and fidelity to my trust, which all the bribes and all the offices in the power of a monarch to bestow shall never make me relinquish for a moment—I feel the insult offered me by the committee—I despise the drunken fool who made the affidavit. and however dignified his station in the county may be, I am not afraid to contrast my reputation with his. I am seldom seen staggering about—neither am I in possession of those talents for cringing and servile flattery, by which he is so eminently distinguished—which mark him as the qualified tool of party, and fit him for any dirty work his masters may choose to set him at.

RICHARD R. SMITH.
late Sheriff of Otsego.
Coopertown, July 4, 1792.