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^ HE COUNTHYMAN.
101
tins transaction, is, that Mr. W., in count
ing interest on quarter-and-sevenpence ac*
iio'lnts, ran his figures out to three deci
mals,and a vulgar fraction,so that he could
have interest “ # even to a quarter of a cent.”
Here was where I first got my idea of the
calibre of Billy’s soul. An 1 when he became
so angry at rriy criticising his picture, I knew
immediately that it was because he was
afraid Fie would lose money by my criticism.
After some of Mr. Wilkes's usual non
sense and pedantry about Blair’s Rhetoric,
lie goes oti to say that he has no doubt 1
was "mad" when I wrote my other article^
a’ul that 1 “cursed him * like a sailor.’ ”—
In this Billy is altogether mistaken. He
hasn’t got high enough “in the pictures”
yet, to excite my wrath. It would take
a man of more calibre to do that. He knows
that I have not been angry with him at all.
The coolness with which I pursue my en
tomological studies, in dissecting the insect
before me, proves that. Aud this is what
mortifies the little insect so much. As to
“cursing ” him, I certainly have never low
ered the dignity of one of my anathemas by
degrading it to the level of Billy. It is more
than probable, that I might have said, or
thought, that lie is calculated to remind one
of a character in a certain humorous work,
called, I believe, Mr. “ Damphool but 1
do not wish this to be misunderstood as
swearing. I aver that I only intend a quo
tation from Q. K. Philander Hoesticks.P. B.
Mr. Wikes accuses me of “bottled
wrat h " against the Baptists. This is false
hood No. 4. Having brought down the
lash upon himself, by his most outrageous
disregard of every principle of a Christian,
and a gentleman, he now slinks aud cow
ers behind the Baptists, and other denom
inations, for protection. It will avail him
nothing He snail be dragged out from
his hiding place, and receive an excoriation
that shall gall aud blister even his rhiutic-
eros tude.
1 wisli to make a remark here about
Mr. Wilkes’s malicious efforts to combine
the denominations against The Country-
man, in order to cut off its circulation, un
der the charge of infidelity, but really to
gratify the infidel preacher’s revenge.
Finding himself inadequate to the task be
lias undertaken, lie calls in all the denom
inations to help lam—do what 1 Really
to sustain him in a course which is a dis
grace to him,and to help him gratify some of
the meanest passions of man’s nature. But
I trust he will ease his pains on this point.
In the first place, he cannot tear away the
fast friends I have amongst Methodists,
Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians.
In the next place, wera I to lose every
subscriber t Iiavc, with a prospect of losing
my life too—(which Mr. Wilkes would like
to take, no doubt, to gratify his revenge)—
I would still continue to issue The Coun
tryman. It is not my regular business. It
is my pastime. I have other business by
which I can live by my own labor. And
as to speaking my honest sentiments, I shall
do that in the future, as I have done it in
the past, regardless of consequences. I
will follow what I conceive to he the truth,
if it leads me to the stake. And if that
spirit is still abroad which would make
pretended religionists of Mr. Wilkes’s stamp
torture and burn ‘''heretics,” if they only had
the power, that other spirit is also abroad
which would make men suffer martyrdom.
Billy asks why l don’t pick out the ed
itor of the Christian Index, or the Baptist
Banner,to write about 1 Why should I wish
f o punish any bod) else for Bdly’s sins,even
if Billy is a “little boy?” Little boys should
behave themselves, aud then they will not
be punished.— The virulent spirit of malig
nity and revenge which the mfidel preach
er of the Journal evinces iu his impotent
endeavor to injure The Countryman by
exciting agaidst him all the denominations
and certain particular men, is entirely wor
thy of him. Like a fangless viper’s, all
his efforts will be iu vain. Does not this
"minister” of the gospel of peace, exhibit,
as a bright and shining light, the charac
teristics of a Christian ?
Mr. Wilkes seems to be very much aston
ished that 1 laid the lash upon his shoul
ders so heavily. It evinces a man’s blunt
ed sensibilities—his utter ignorance of ev
ery feeling of a gentleman, when he can
charge falsehood upon another man, and
compare him to a dog, aud not expect the
person slandered, to resent it.
Mr. Wilkes says The Countryman “has
left the real question at issue for the pur
pose of attacking his religious tenets.”—
The only question at issue, is, should not
Billy be excoriated tor his improper con
duct ? I answer it in the affirmative,
seize the lash, and lay it on the trembling
culprit’s shoulders. He deserves much
more than he gets.
He says that in.my poein, The Times, is
found the portraiture of an aged Methodist
rniuister. This is falsehood No. 5. There
is no such portraiture in the whole poem.
And this is of a piece with his falsehood
No. 6, where he says I “began attacks on
a venerable minister of the Methodist de
nomination—(mark you, he cannot afford
to say ‘church’—it is ‘denomination’—
Methodist ‘denomination')—when but a
boy.” I never did any such thing. Mr.
Wilkes refers to an exploded error which
was circulated concerning me when a boy,
and which only he has been base enough to
revive. And it is iu keeping with his char
acter that he, with a Paul Pry and lick-spittle
impertinence, thrusts matters and men be-
fore the the public, who, I ttiink, will not
thank him for thus disturbing their priva
cy, and who will have sense enough to
understand his motives, and bestew upon
him the contempt which he merits.
But with all his eulogies of the aged*
minister of the Methodist “denomination
of whom he speaks—with all lr.s eulogies
of that minister’s piety and other good
qualities, Billy has never thought that that
minister was worthy to go with him to the
Lord’s fable. He, is not a member of the
church. He has not been “baptized■ "
“ Who does not recollect,” continues Mr.
Wilkes, “in the Independent Press pub
lished by him [The Countryman] a few
years since, in Eatonton, an article by the
same Mr. T., declaring that at the dying
bed.no minister of the gospel should oe
allowed to be present ?”—This is falsehood
No. 7, and the most damning, black, base,
willful, and malicious lie of the whole
batch.
Mr. Wilkes says, in effect, that the pub
lisher, in New York, of The Thnes, was
one “from whose polluted press everything
obscene and filmy lias been accustomed to
flow in tonents.” This is falsehood No. 8.
*
Charles B. Norton, who had The Times
printed for me, was one of the most re
spectable publishers in N. York, and never,
that I am aware, issued any other than a
respectable work from Ins press. It is true
that after promising me that he would pub
lish my work,he merelyprinfedil,aud threw
the edition on my hands. He gave me as a
reason for doing so that he was afraid of be
ing prosecuted for slander: and this fear
arose from the fact that in The Times, Vau
Buren, Grreeley, and other yankee aboli
tionists—(many of the clabs accustomed to
sue for slander)—were severely lampooned.
Norton did not fear to have the poem cir
culated at the South, and so wrote me.
Mr. Wilkes inquires if 1 don’t “believe
in” “a hell?”—It would be strange if I did
not, with such a fit subject for that insti
tution as the infidel preacher of the Journal
is. The bare existence of Mr. Wilkes
ought to satisfy anyone of the existence of
his native land.
Billy gives his readers some gaibled ex
tracts from The Times. Surely the whole
poem is bad enough, without resorting to