The Louisville gazette and republican trumpet. (Louisville, Ga.) 1800-1809, November 19, 1800, Image 2

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cured on hlsjiuii, neither tojih | rify or extenuate can (hew the j truth of his complaint—The Lord deliver us from fuch ty ranny. Thefe kind of prole - cutions are the beloved off fpringof monarchies and ariffo cracics; but for them poverty and lore oppreflion among one elate, would not at this time be the order of the day in Eng land. Profecutions for libels are certain forerunners of vice and corruption having entered into the adminiffration m repub lics. As printing is the life and full of republics, fo profe cutions for libels are the death and bane of them —With one of the high born on the bench, and an independent citizen who had not bowed the knee to the bra zen flame, or humbled himfelf to the mighty, brought before him on a conviction for a libel, what a feafl it would afford eve ry lenfe of fuch a court to pafs fcntencc; and it may, I think, be doubted, whether in fuch an in (fancc, (altho* in another of a rnofl abominable and unnatural offence) authorities could be found from the mully adjudica tions of England, to leave a difcrction with the judge to difpenfe with pillory and impri fonment, even in view of the loathfomcncfs and filthincfs of the jail. HOMESPUN. Mcffrs. Day & Hely, FROM the utter contempt in Which I held the pfeudo drib blers, I never intended to have made any reply to the various falfe, and fcurrilous publications, which have appeared from time to time in the Republican Trum pet fir many months pafl; and had the vile fabricator and his coadjutors contented them Elves with venting their malignant fpleen, on me only, I fhould have raffed them over w ith the fame lilent contempt which I have hitherto obferved towards them. But when I fee the bafenefs of the human mind, worked up to fuch a degree of depravity, as to propagate through the medium of your Gazette, the vileft Han - ders, and meft unfounded afper iiuns, on the character and con duct of a venerable deceafed pa rent, whofe afhes have remained in peace for near thirty years , end whole memory has ever been held in the highcfl eflcem and refpeCt. And when I refleCt that the PAMPERED CREA TURE, who has now dared to uifturh the a flees of the dead , is actuated by the unmanly intention of injuring the feelings of a whole family, from the tender mother to the Hfping infant on the knee, not contented under the cloak of friendfhip, and the protection of the molt unbounded confidence, with having robbed the father of that family of many thoufands of dollars, and meanly abandoning his employment, without ren dering any flatement of his ac counts, after having been en trulted for two years, ami in the mean time protected and reliev ed from the horrors of extreme poverty and diftrefs. This mon jler of ingratitude , urged on by an abandoned heart, and ftimu tated by a junto equally abhorred as himfelf, attcrrjpti by iiuiUngj indifriminate Handers nnd faff infinuations, to rob them of theirl re])utarion and refpeCtabilityj alfo, from the grand father whole) manes have long re fled in die duft, down to the innocent grand fon of only five years old.— Routed at the inhuman villainy , 1 feel compelled by the duty I owe to the memory of a deceafed parent, to come forward in the public papers, and pronounce the ravage author of this flan derouspublication an unprincipled abandoned liar , and a bafe ajjaffin of the reputation of the dead. — My father was a judge of the fupreme court of judicature in New-Jcrfey, previous to ‘the revolution, and both in his pri vate and public character, lie lived as much ref petted, and died as much lamented and regretted , as any man that ever lived or died in that province—(i) a few months before his death, when at the advanced old age of be tween fixty and feventy years, a levere affliction of Providence occafionally impaired his intel lects, and in a paroxifm of the rheumatic head ache he left the world, when deprived of the exercifc of his mental faculties. It was a difpenfatiort of cur God, and no one but a barbarian with a heart black as Erebus , would have dared to have mentioned the circumftance of his death, as a reproach to the living > or a reflection on the dead. I will venture to add, that the fccretary's performance will meet with ab horrence and contempt in every benevolent mind, and in every place, except in the chamber where it originated. I know not how Mr. Thomas Johnfon’s fa ther lived or died. If I did, I would not avail myfelf of the information to make a mean re crimination on the dead. I will confine fny obfervations to the POLL TAX MAJOR , of the prefent day, who if he had met with the wages of his fins, would long before now have died on a gibbet. The people of Greene, Meffrs. Printers, will inform you, that Thomas Johnfon now fccretary to the Governor of Georgia, only fix or feven years ago was detected concealed in a garret , as they verily believe, in the bafe aCI of counterfeiting and antidating land works—(2) with the nefarious intention no doubt of defrauding the honed citizen of his right; the perfons who dcteCted Mr. Johnfon were under fuch unfavorable imprete fions towards him, as to induce them to order him cut of their county , they thought it prudent and proper not to truft him in their fettlement, and the vagrant att juftifying the mcafurc they accordingly notified him of the mandate, which they fay he very civilly obeyed, rather than rifle the penalty of a lalhing , which was to have been the rcfult of a non compliance. A gentleman in Columbia will further tell you, that feme few years ago, this lame Mr. fccretary Johnfon, re ceived from a Mr, Simms, of Maryland, a letter and four gui neas, directed to that gentleman, for the purpote of paving Mr. Simms's taxes on fome lands he hdd in Georgia* ether letters to the ffime gentleman were deli z'trcd, but the letter and money withheld. That he made fevc ral enquiries of Mr. Johnfon rd’pedhng his having other letters for him befides thofe delivered , who as often denied his having any—But having received infor mation from Mr. Simms that he had fent the money and letter by Mr. Johnfon, he again applied to him (Johnfon) for them, whom he met at Mr. Whitney’s Tales in Franklin about the 7th of January, 1794, at the fame time informing him that he (the gentleman in Columbia) had re ceived advice from Mr. Simms that he had fent the money and letter by him (Johnfon) —Mr. Johnfon then and net till then , acknowledged his having receiv ed the money but had iifed it— (3) the letter fhortly after came to hand but the Teal was broken ! as the gentleman has informed me, and the money has fmee been fettled, partly by goods out of a flore belonging to col. Cobbs, of which Mr. Johnfon had the charge, and partly by a difeount of fees, which he had an opportunity of making when I (unfortunately for myfelf and family) intruflcd him with the charge of the treafury. “ Oh Tcmpora ! Oh Mores !” indeed. Being now engaged in a reply, I fhall avail myfelf of the occa fion to add, that the infignificant attempts which have been con tinually made to delude the pub lic into a belief that I have de tained nine or tenthoufand dol lars of die public money, are too fallacious to give me any con cern—(4) Both the conftituticn and the law declare the yazoo depofit to be no part of the funds of the fate , and difclaim all refpcnfibility for it—And tho’ in reality I did not lend or ufe , the whole of the fum deficient in that depofit, yet I felt as the officer, honorably bound for the whole, and have acknowledged myfelf accountable for it, and in addition to my ow n property, have given ample fecurity for the refund of it to the depofitors, whenever it becomes necdTary. If Mr. Johnfon had done me the juflice, to have accounted for the monies he took from the treafury, to relieve himfelf from bankruptcy , when intrufled with the charge of that cjfuc by me , the prefent deficiency would have been lefs, and I Hiould in a great meafurc have excufed him for his pilfering, or what has been termed only a “ breach of trufi ” —though on me and my pro perty it operates as downright feeding. Averle from making vague affic rtions, I refer my fol low' citizens to the evidence of Major Adams, now among the records of the Superior Court of Jcfferfon county, on this fubjeft, they will there fee that Mr. Johnfon did not hefi tate to declare, that betides what he had already taken, he would furnifh himfelf with two thou fand dollars at one time to anlwer his necellities* which no doubt he did, but forgot the due bill , as no due bill for that fum ever appeared—(s) As to the filly and ridiculous infimiations ref pe&ing captains Muaroe and I only c'xpklrr tticjn be can ft, before they have no* been heard of in this quarter Munroe was feized by my on.// when colic&or of-the'port o* Savannah, for a breach of { jv* laws of the date, in attempting to defraud it of its revenir p! had a fair trial before a jury an»i was convifted, and a moiety 0 ; the condemnation money paid into the treafury of the flare— (6) The cafe of MTxan was limilar fo far as his having com mitted a breach of the laws of the United States—he was the mailer of a Neva Scotia veil;! was feized, and punifhed accord* ingly. Nothing but the fabri cated falfchoods which have been published in your paper againft the reputation of a deceafed pa, rent could have induced me to make this reply. The unmanly and inhuman attack will juftift. the ccndejcenficn . I fhould oa no other conlideration liave no ticed the paltry fcribblers who have been continually pouring out their abufc again ft me.— Their opinions of my charade: are of Ids confequence to me, and will be lefs regarded by the honeji part of the community, than that of any free negro in the country. 1 w ill now remark that the charges againft Mr. Johnfon, in Greene, th t four gut nea J peculation , as well as the two thoufand dollars at one grab, are not the vagaries of a corrupt ed fancy , or the offspring of a revengeful imagination , but that they are deduced from, and fup ported by the teilimony of ref pe Stable perjons, whofc affidavits and certificates arc and have long been in my poileffion. They fully evince that little credit ought to be attached to any of his per formances. It would take a vo lume to contain a fpcciai detail of the vice and ingratitude with wTich the condudl of this mar) through life has been marked; at preient let it fuffice in return for his elegant quotation of the magouffer, that I alfo bornrsj a character extremely applicable to him on' this occafion, and I will allow him on tbojeprinciples, to be a c ample at thar after. —■ | “ Thatis , that there is no one vice, j with which he is not intimately j acquainted, and no one virtue to which he is not an entire fir anger. '* I now take my leave of the lub je<T, and regret the neceflicy which has compelled me to in trude on the public this lengthy detail ; as it is the firil time in my life that I have ever troubled them in this way, I truil I fhall be excufed, particularly w'hen it is confidered, that the falfe, in human attack , upon the character of a deceafed parent has drawn me into it. I never on my own account, fhould have the ft'mulated performances of hoard of Jycophantic bullies, un~ derfirapping minions , and degraded time Jcrving tools, who have to.* months pafl been continually pouring forth their perfecting abide and fcurrility againft but would have paffed by their efforts to injure me with thf contempt they merited, and in ftlence have awaited the rciult et opinion with a liberal and de cerning public, with refpebf & the extent of the prrfecutiwh