A Review and Exposition, of the Falsehoods and Misrepresentations, of a Pamphlet Addressed to the Republicans of the County of Saratoga, Signed, A Citizen by An Elector
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An Elector >> A Review and Exposition, of the Falsehoods and Misrepresentations, of a Pamphlet Addressed to the Republicans of the County of Saratoga, Signed, A Citizen
"To airy nothing,
A local habitation and a name."
We could hardly say of that book, however, as Hamlet said of his
Father's ghost that
"He would take his word for a thousand pounds"--
Or why do we hear it insisted that the fault of keeping alive discord
and division in the county, is imputable to a few individuals named and
pointed out by it?--Aside from the base and unprincipled attempts of
Roe, Thompson and some of their co-adjutors, to prostrate the only
_republican press_ in the county, by a system of slander and
detraction; The public cannot have forgotten that Mr Young's _famous_
colleagues were mildly and publicly invited to an amicable explanation,
which they refused and rendered the publication of affidavits necessary
in justification. The only reply which was received, was a still more
general, malignant and furious attack upon the press, not only from the
columns of the Schenectady Cabinet, but the foul lingo of Roe, Thompson
& co. with bitter complaints whenever that press either ridiculed their
folly and impertinence, or defended itself against their insidious and
secret attempts to effect its destruction.
Amongst other things in order to create a pretence for their _book_, it
will be recollected that judge Child has authorised the charge of
falsehood against the Journal in its maintaining that he had threatened
to get a new press into the county &c.--Indeed the judge appears to be
remarkably well pleased with that production, not only by his long
certificates, but by a letter which he afterwards wrote to the printer
of the _Courier_, recognizing its merits and trying to _divide with
federalists_ the honor of carrying clothes to the army;[5] which it
seems was given him by the _book_ in order to render his standing as a
certifier more conspicuous, by uniting on his broad brow, both the
_military_ and _civic_ wreath. How far the _denial_ of this mock
_Cincinnatus_ that he threatened as early as May to get a new press,
"_with all his blushing honors thick upon him_," will satisfy the
public, may in some measure he determined by the following certificate.
"I hereby solemnly certify, that on the last of May or first
of June last, when at the house of Judge Child, in a
conversation relating to the Saratoga Journal, and the
conduct of its Editor Mr. Isaiah Bunce, the said Judge then
and there made use of the following expression to me, viz.
'You must remember that the friends of Mr. Young, are not men
of the _least property_, nor _least influence_ in the County,
and Bunce may have _another press set up by his side_ in less
than six months--That he [the said Judge] should withdraw his
support from him, and said that it was best for every one to
do the same, and then his press would fall of course.' And at
the same time said, that he had rather _support the federal
press at the Springs_ than the _Journal_. Shortly after this
I informed Mr. Bunce of the above conversation at his
office.'--JONATHAN WESTCOTT. _Milton, March 14th 1816_."
Young and Thompson made similar declarations of their intention to get
another press about the same time, with which they have been often
charged, and it seems thought best not to hazard a denial in the
book--therefore no other certificate but the one relating to Child's
has been procured--And the judge's conduct would have been more
christian-like, had he written a letter exculpating the editor of the
Journal from an undeserved odium cast upon him by his authority, than
thus to have given it confirmation and support, at the same time
knowing it to be _untrue_.
Of a piece with this however, appears to have been his previous conduct
about the time of his presiding over the _abortion_ at McBains. I
allude to his sending the history of that meeting with orders by
Thompson and Stillwell, to the editor of the Journal to print without
reading it.
"I Lyman B. Langworthy, of the village of Ballston Spa, do
certify to my fellow-citizens the following facts;--That on
the night of the 20th April 1815, two days after the McBain
meeting--being in the office of the Saratoga Journal late in
the evening, James Thompson, James Merrill and Wm. Stillwell,
Esqs. came into the room. Immediately after being seated, Mr.
Thompson who acted as chief speaker, pompously displayed a
fold of paper which he wished Mr. Bunce to print off in the
form of Handbills by morning, it being then quite late. Mr.
Bunce wished to see it and its contents.
"Here Mr. Thompson to my astonishment flatly refused, unless
Mr. B. would first promise on his word and honor that he
would _positively_ and _unconditionally_ agree to print it
_let it contain what it would_. This bro't on a long parley;
Mr. Bunce wished to see it if for nothing more than to shew
his workman its length, to learn from him whether it was
possible to execute it in the time allowed. Mr. Thompson
refused, and entered pretty lengthy into the subject, in his
_precise roundabout_ manner: asserting that it was _none of
his business what it contained_--that it was impertinent in a
'_mechanic_' to ask his employers the use or destination of
any work he should employ him to do; and frequently by way of
a _salve_ interlarding his conversation with '_we do not wish
you to do it for nothing Mr. Bunce, we have money enough_.'
After much chaffering between the parties, judge Stillwell in
a very candid manner, desired that the paper might be read,
asking him if it _contained any thing they were ashamed of_.
Mr. Thompson then looked to Mr. Merrill as for his opinion.
Mr. Merrill said with some warmth, 'he shan't see it.' This
brot' on considerable bickerings--crimination and
re-crimination between Mess. Bunce, and Thompson, which judge
Stillwell tho't rather indecorous, and quite earnestly
rebuked the two gentlemen for their wrath, and at the same
time said he thot' it high time to deliver judge Child's
message. Here Mr. Thompson apparently supposing himself only
entrusted with the charge, seemed not to understand.--After a
great deal of argument, the paper at last had a 'first
reading,' & was the proceedings of the McBain meeting, signed
by Child, Thompson and Stillwell; and was delivered to Mr.
Bunce, to shew his compositor, who was in bed. Mr. Bunce
insisted that some of the gentlemen should deliver the
message which judge Stillwell seemed to be so anxious about.
Here the three gentlemen were thrown into great
confusion--eyed each other as though each supposed the other
ignorant of what he himself knew. Judge Stillwell's
countenance seemed to labor with something which he was bound
to reveal; and Mr. Thompson noting this, desired judge
Stillwell _if he knew it to let it out_. Judge Stillwell then
putting himself in an attitude corresponding, as he appeared
to think, with the magnitude of the subject, began by saying
that judge Child had instructed him to say to Mr. Bunce,
_that he had always been a particular friend of his--had
always given him all of his business--and should be sorry to
withdraw it after the friendly intercourse which had
subsisted between them--that it was the earnest desire of
judge Child that Mr. Bunce should have the refusal of
printing it; 'but as a last resort say to him from me, that
if he refuses to print it as desired by Mr. Thompson, that I
forever withdraw my patronage from his press.'_"
Here Mr. Bunce indignantly threw back the paper to Mr. Thompson, and
declared that under those circumstances he should not print it--saying
that after buffeting the storm of federalism, and the dark days of the
wars of our country, he little expected such treatment from one whose
duty it was to protect the press &c. &c.--and it was after much
persuasion, and partly through my own importunities, that he was
induced to print it.
"Mr. Bunce's conduct through the whole transaction, which
must have lasted two hours or more, was _consistent, firm_
and _independent_ to my conception, as was the others
_haughty_, _supercilious_ and _overbearing_.--Lyman B.
Langworthy. _March, 1816_."
Here fellow citizens is the _iron club of power_ held over the head of
an editor of a _free press_, during an election--to coerce him and his
press into obedience to their dictates. What are we coming to when men
high in office use their offices, influence and patronage to control
the freedom of the press, which all the champions of freedom esteem the
organ and safeguard of our _liberties_--and attempt to compell it to
bend to their purposes--to sell itself and rush _blind fold_ on any
measure their interest or ambition may dictate?
The independent conduct of Mr. Bunce on this occasion was probably one
reason among _others_ why the judge aided in the introduction of
another printer of the more _pliant sort_; who would more readily bend
to his purposes and serve as a pipe with which his friends Roe,
Thompson, Stillwell &c. could spit their venom thro' the county in the
more permanent form of a _pamphlet_.
In this, with _three_ insolvent advertisements staring him in the face
from the _Independent American_, the judge denies, or sanctions a
denial, that he ever ordered an advertisement to be printed in that
paper _at all_. Unblushing impudence indeed!--Thus to ask the public to
pervert the eternal principles of truth and justice by giving credit to
such assertions as these.
The examination of a few more topics under this head shall
suffice.--Indeed amongst the disgusting details of falsehood and
meanness with which that production abounds; you find many remarks
imputed to the Journal which it never made, while those which it has
made, on examination will be found strictly true.
The writer of that pamphlet is guilty of falsehood in asserting that
the _editorial_ remarks of the Journal are not copied into other
papers. Not to mention others, they have been copied the year past in
several instances, by the _National Intelligencer_ at Washington, and
by _Niles' Weekly Register_ at Baltimore, two of the ablest papers in
the _Union_. The remarks which the book falsely calls a _scurrilous
attack_ upon the _Governor_, instead of being an attack on him, it so
happens that they were merely calculated to let the public know what
every republican had a right to expect, and which they in fact
_realized_ from our worthy chief magistrate in the season of peril
which dictated them.--They were such as he would himself approve, while
he would frown contemptuously on the _little fry_ who attempt so base a
slander in his name. Would to God the conduct of some of the governor's
fawning and pretended admirers could endure investigation like that of
this great and good man--the pride and ornament of his country!
As to the charge against the Journal for asserting that the first judge
and others had combined to domineer and rule the people of this county,
you already have a taste of the judge's fondness for domineering over
some of the people, and over their press; and that other persons named
have _acted_ in concert with him is equally true and notorious;--And it
is hardly necessary to enquire whether they combined for the purpose,
or instinctively assembled like birds of the same feather, from a
common spirit of domination. It is false, however, that the Journal
ever made such a charge. This and a number of these remarks are only
suffering them to wear a coat which they themselves have cut out of
whole cloth, and which seems to fit them so exactly. That paper never
charged Mr. Young with any management or compromise with the
federalists, further than what justly resulted from his being chosen
_supervisor_ in _Ballston_ by _federalists_, contrary to the _regular
town nomination_, and his afterwards being complimented by the federal
paper as a modern political _Luther_, on account of his having quit his
own party in that town and submitted to federal policy, not denied by
the _book_--from his having _aided_ in the election of the _federal
candidate for Congress_ in the fall of 1812; and from his "at least"
conniving at _federal aid_, in the spring of 1815--all of which are
facts of too general notoriety to be denied.
But the Journal did charge some of Mr. Young's friends with a
_political understanding_ between them and the federalists, which is
not only passed over in silence by the _book_, but proved by the
foregoing estimates and certificates.
On seeing Mr. Young supporting, and supported in his turn by a Senator
or Senators of this state for office, the Journal did ask the question,
whether it was pursuant to an _arrangement_ on the subject between
them? This question was put in the Journal directly to Mr.
Young--taking it for granted that Mr. Young has adopted the language in
the book on this question as his own, this might be received as an
_answer_, had not a mere _question_ been first perverted into a charge.
The Journal did also ask him the question, whether he intended to make
_one Joel Lee, clerk of this county?_ To which the book, replies that
he never promised any office to any man whatever. It is perhaps
necessary, in justice to the Editor of the Journal, to introduce the
following certificate, and leave this part of the subject without
farther comment.
"I hereby certify, that shortly after the appointment of Wm.
Stillwell, as a clerk, of this county, I was in the city of
Albany, and conversed with Mr. Young on the subject of that
appointment, in which conversation I expressed my surprise at
his appointment, to which Mr. Young replied, it was not his
fault, that there was a petition for him from some of the
most respectable men in the county, and it would not do for
him to oppose it, but that his mind was the strongest on
_Joel Lee_ for that office.--ELI BEARDSLEE. _Milton, March
1816_."
Among others to whom Lee admitted he had been promised of _offered_ the
Clerk's office by Young, is Mr. Nicholas Smith, but it is thought
unnecessary to multiply certificates on this head.
The writer of that pamphlet also displays his characteristic ignorance,
or stupid disregard to truth, when he says that the Journal ever
charged Young with receiving pay in three capacities, during the _extra
session_ of 1815. It never made the charge as it respected _that_, or
any other _year_;--but it so happens that during the _extra, session_
of 1814, Mr. Young did receive $5 per day, which was the pay for a
member of the house, and $2.25 per day, which was the _extra allowance_
on account of his being speaker. See New Revised Laws, Vol. I. p. 528,
and the act of April 18th 1815, called the _supply bill_, Sec. 15, by
which two acts, the wages of the Assembly are fixed at _$5_, and those
of the speaker at $7.25, and extended to the extra session of 1814.
Altho' the Journal _never_ made the charge imputed to it, yet you see
how easily and conclusively that charge might have been supported, had
the assertion ever been made.
With regard to Mr. Young's receiving the pay of a Col. he never was
charged with having done this during any _extra session_. That paper
did insinuate that he at one time as aid to the governor received that
pay. And it is hardly worth stopping to enquire whether he did or not,
so long as we have _his word_ that the Governor _offered_ it to him, in
consequence of which he _agreed_ to serve. Whether he got the _cash_
and gave a _receipt_ for it;--or it was absorbed in his _expences_;--or
laid it out to buy another press;--or yet _remains due_, is altogether
immaterial, so long as an answer is substantially made out to a
question raised by his _good friends_, and to which the public may
expect a reply: The following certificate is therefore given without
comment.
"I certify, that a day or two previous to Samuel Young's
accompanying his excellency the Governor to New-York, in
conversation with Mr. Young at his house, he informed me that
while he was at Albany, from where he had but just returned,
he called on his excellency, who then informed him of his
intended expedition to New-York, and pressed him, Mr. Young
to accompany him; that he objected, and said that he should
be much pleased with the jaunt, but his business was such, as
to render it impossible; that the Governor urged him still
stronger, and he replied that he was wholly unprepared for
leaving home any length of time, and the Governor calculated
to go the next day or day but one--that the Governor told him
if he would accompany him, he would make him _an aid_ with
the _pay_ of a _colonel_, and _bear his expences_, and that
he would defer going until the next steam boat; that he
wished to take time to consider the Governor's proposals as
he informed the Governor--and soon after told him he would
accompany him.--SETH C. BALDWIN, Junior. _Warren County,
March 1816_."
The Journal never charged Young with having informed Merrill that he
"was not now Secretary, but should be to-morrow." At it again Merrill.
Will you certify that you did not give a friendly hint to a gentleman
who was going to Albany, that you had a connexion who would make an
excellent clerk in the Secretary's office, and request his name to be
given to Mr. Young, to whom Young replied, _I am not now Secretary but
shall be to-morrow_? I believe an intimation to this effect was given
in the Journal, which you blink with as much ingenuity as though you
had been bred in the same school with Mr. Young's colleagues. Amongst
the great number to whom Mr. Young _did give_ the information that he
was shortly to be Secretary, _you_, then it seems were omitted!
The facts disclosed in the following certificate, cannot fail to remind
one of the fable of the "Country maid, and her milk pail."
"I hereby certify, that while riding in company with Samuel
Young from Ballston to Albany, when going to the _winter
session_ of 1815, the day before the legislature met, the
said Young informed me that he expected to be Secretary of
State when the republican council should be chosen; that he
could be a member of the _legislature_ and _Secretary of
State at the same time_, and _could reside at the Springs_ or
Ballstown in the summer, and do the business of Secretary in
Albany by Deputy, and that _these two_ offices would give him
a _pretty good living_, or words to that effect.--JESUP
RAYMOND. _Ballston, April 1816_."
"Green--let me consider; yes, green becomes my complexion best, and
green it shall be."
Mr. Kasson, was early spoken of by the _Independent American_ as an
applicant for the _Sheriff's office_, and as it appeals, was afterwards
a candidate for the county convention, and pledged to the support of
Mr. Young. In consequence of this, the Journal did ask the question to
Mr. Young, whether he intended Mr. Kasson as the Sheriff of this
county?--and nothing more. I think a farther inquiry was made whether
he was not authorised to purchase a "_mansion house_ for the _new
secretary_, in the village of Ballston Spa?" on which he preserves a
cautious silence.
It is remarkable in this and other instances, with what industry _The
Citizen_ manufactures assertions to suit his own purpose, and then
denies them. Having at length exhausted his fancy in fabricating,
shaping and denying particular charges, hardly one of which ever
existed, he ranges up his whole artillery of vengeance;--the battle
becomes general:--And the famous Doctor Slop, the man midwife, did not
pour a more copious and continued shower of curses upon Obadiah, who
had tied his bag of instruments with hard knots, than is thus suddenly
let fly upon the devoted head of the Editor of the Saratoga Journal.
"_Really_" said the Frenchman to an old woman who had been storming and
fretting at Napoleon, "the Emperor, my master would feel himself
infinitely grieved, if he knew how hard your _lady-ship_ thought of
him."
But it seems the Editor of the Journal "has indulged himself in a
course of low and vulgar sarcasms," tho' no particular instance is
pointed out. Thus the citizen, after sending his friend, Mr. Elias
Benedict, into the bar-room, to certify the _damns_ and _god damns_ of
Mr. Wilkins, suddenly becomes extremely modest and refined, and falls
to moralizing like Michael Cassio, after his _own_ drunken fit is over.
Mr. Bunce might really be esteemed far gone, had he reached the climax
of vulgarity which distinguishes the _citizen_ and his _book_.
But says the _book_ in another place, "the manners of Mr. Bunce are
_coarse and vulgar_." I suppose an immediate allusion is here intended
to the _manner_ in which he treated _Stillwell_ and _Thompson's_
supercilious proposition to agree to print their famous history of the
McBain Meeting, without reading it, under penalty of losing the first
Judge's patronage in case of a refusal. Perhaps they mean that he did
not on that occasion, turn out his toes exactly as he ought; or make a
becoming bow to so much mock consequence as surrounded them. I know not
in what language to describe their notions. We have already admitted
that Mr. Bunce does not pretend to vie in _purity_ of dialect with the
certificate of Mr. Elias Benedict. Suppose we also admit that he cannot
hold competition with Roe as a profound _linguist_--with Mr. Thompson
in _fairness_, _high mindedness_, _openness_ and _candor_--nor with Mr.
Linnendoll in belleslettres--and that he would not make so good a
_dancing master_ as Mr James Merrill[6] and leave the public to judge
whether coming short of these qualifications, he can be any way
tolerable in his person or polished in his conversation.
But 'tis said again, that he has presented some of our citizens "in the
ludicrous attitude of being in chase of one of the wheels of a
_political hack_." This plain farmer-like simile has given great
offence, and perhaps justly, to the high and refined notions of certain
book gentry; who have been too much in the habit of _hunting_ an
_office_, or _chasing_ a _dollar_, to believe that the idea of so
ordinary an occupation, could ever have been connected with that of
such _great men_ as themselves.
It may not be amiss to here remark, that Mr. Bunce was admitted an
Attorney of the Supreme Court in 1804; he settled in the village of
Salina in the county of Onondaga; shortly afterwards it was made a post
town, and he was appointed Post-Master[7] by the general government,
and continued in that office until he removed from that place. Soon
after his removal to Bridgewater, Oneida County, he was appointed
Post-Master at that place, and continued in that office until he
resigned on his removal to the county of Saratoga. During his residence
in the Western District, he attended with industry and fidelity to the
profession in which he was educated.
Soon after the declaration of war he concluded to quit the practice of
law, and purchased the establishment of the Republican press of this
county, and became the editor of the Journal.
Mr. Bunce has been a faithful, able, zealous and indefatigable
supporter and defender of our republican institutions, and of the
measures of our general and state government; and I confidently ask,
who ever accused him till this faction commenced their operations.
During the memorable campaign of 1814, he was not only vigilant and
faithful to our rights as an editor; but when danger threatened from
all quarters, he hired, equipped, and sent a common soldier into the
field for the defence of New-York.
Several who were active in introducing Mr. Bunce to the republicans of
this county, after finding him too independent to bend to their
"_particular_" views, and after he had rejected with disdain their
proffers to surrender to them his rights as an editor, they formed
themselves into a court of Inquisition, and ushered forth their courtly
mandates "Bunce must be sacrificed" "the Journal shall go down," even
this proscription extended to his family, and to his fireside; and so
eager were certain of these factionists, that they formed a plan to
break up his establishment by _force_, and actually threatened _to
scatter his types_. This fact is too susceptible of proof to be denied.
The republicans for a long time were silent spectators, while viewing
the persecution of their editor, and attack upon their own rights and
privileges; they fondly hoped, that time would cure the evil, and sober
reflection convince them of their error; but in this hope they were
disappointed, their persecutions encreased; and to them more certainly
to effect their object, and encouraged by the smiles of federalists,
they secretly brought a new printing press into the county--it was then
the designs of these men were more apparent--it was then the
republicans proclaimed their rights, and spoke to these "conspirators"
in language too loud not to be heard--too emphatic not to be
understood. And as long as these "conspirators" continue their press to
war against the rights and privileges of the people, Mr. Bunce as a
faithful centinel, will remain firm at his post. What though a gang of
office-holders should "in the mild spirit of Christian humility" (see
page 7 of the book) fulminate their maledictions against him; the
people will not be frightened into submission, nor the editor from his
duty.