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Mr. Birney To The Liberty Party

Mr. Birney To The Liberty Party image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
February
Year
1845
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Saginaw ,?íe-MNArioí.-CoNcluded. - Add to the etidence contained in the foregoing letter, that, but a few days before the convention was-heWy 1 had refused to attend it, as a Town-delegate, on being requested to do so by Capt. Marsac - himself a democrat and a member of the Convention, - on the ground that, I was not of tlie democratie party; - thnt I had said toMr. Garland - also, a democrat and a member of the Convention, - that the comiption of tlie democratie party, as well as of the Whig party, called for it to bc broken up; - that I had said substantially the same thing to Mr. Frazer, a Whig; and that in a public address delivered a short time previously, I had spoken of the Demo cratic party, as shams, as of the cuta neous, or skin-deep class, as traitors to the cause of Freedom, Humanity an Justice: - whh all this before them, f the convention were "imposed" on, they showed themselves too willfully blind to -be enlrusted with the inlerests of any par ly. But they were not blind. The nomination was made with ampie knotvl edge and in good faith - of a person who was known to be not of the party, bu who, it was supposed, would fairly am impartially tothe best of his ability, subservethe interests of the County, and o the State, so far as those interesfs might come before him as a Representative of the County. 1 deern it proper here to say, that the story published in the democratie papers of iheSnginaw Whigs' manoeuvring to procure my nomination by the democrats, in order to "use it" as it was afterwards used by the Whig party, was, as I have since learned, and as I believed, and publicly stated, on first hearing it, a thorouffh democratie fabrication.The Whigs of this counry were not surprised at the nominations. It never once entered their minds - :knowing me as they did - that I had committed myself in any way to the democratie party. The dayafterthe nominaiion a Whig wrote to me, inforraing me of it. Pie expressed no surprise at it; nor did he say, that any one was surprised at it; but after mentioning the name of the gentleman, who, ie supposed, would be the Whig nominee, says - "1 think you may make up your mind, lowever, to spend this winter in Detroit, Sr it seems to be the wish of a goodly number of both parlies." Had no impulse from abroad been given to the Whigs of thisCounty, the nomination would have caused no excitementamong them. So well did they know what we re my political principles,& where my political sympathies lay,that even the direct assertionof the Detroit Advertiser, thatl had been a "Loco Foco," and that all my sympathies were with that party, had produced no effect on them, so far as I have heard - as to my sincerity asa Liberty party man. Indeed, knowing so well as I did all the circumstances of the nomination and the state of public opinión at home, when the Whig clamor first overtook me in New York City, the morning I arrived there, andbefore I had even been informed, except indirectly, of the nomination, it struck me, as so perfectly ridiculous, that 1 hesitated a good deal about taking any notice of the first scurrilous article that appeared in the Tribune newspaper, in relat ion to it. The quiescent state of the Whigs, in Saginaw County in regard to the nomination, is also evinced by the fact that the outcry did not begin with them, but abroad. Amos P. Davis, Ejq. a member of the Bar, at Flint, had been at Saginaw City, harranguing his whig friends, the day the democratie Convention was held. He sounded the first note of alarm, though somewhat moderately, in a letter frorr Flint, on 30th Sept. A sympathetic feeling was caught at Pontiac, and communicated next day (Oct. 1.) lo the worldinthe first of that series of anony■moiis letters and ptiblicalions, to which the nomination gave rise. On the 4th, the whole affair was emblazoned in the Detroit Advertiser, as "the coalition complete." It chhned in well and gave color to the forme r assertion of that print that I had been a "Loco Foco," and tha my sympathies were with that party." - The cry however, was, at last, heard by the, as yet, undisturbed whig "managers' in Saginaw. They were apt pupiis how ever, soon brought to see, froin the close calculations of the Presidential chances made daily in the Whisr press, that theissue might, as it, in fact, did depend on a few thousand votes in New York. Now if any event that had taken place in this "end of the earth," could be pressed an( made effeetive by Ihem, to the secunng of the eleciion of the wliig candidate, their renown would be imperishable. As the truc "victors" a large and glittering share of the "spoils" would have been theirs. Their virtue was not equal to their zeal - thetemptation was too stron - they were swept away by t.he curren that set in upon them; originating an giving confirmation to the most groundless representations. This was done, too not by direct statement or evidence o what I had said or done, but by the mos evasive indirection - such as, "itissaidt ■or ilü is wel? vnder-ttood here" tha; MrBirney solicited the nominalion; or "üis considered" that Mr. B. is committed to the democratie party, &c. &c. YVitfo the single exception of a letter signed'by the Rev.Hiram L. Milleiy?ated Oct. 25, all the Communications published in the Advertiser, as from Saginaware anonymous. lapplied to the editors for then names of the wnters. They were refused in1 every instance. I will not even at the slighrtesfi hazard of doing injustice to any one, venture to state, who were the Snginaw corresponden ts of the Advertiser, last October. Bat f now cali on them, whomsoever they may be, oither to come fonvard in their proper persons, and substantiate the injurious charges they have published and circulated against me, or, if they cannot substantiiite them, magnanimously to retract them. - Particularly do Í refer to the charges contained in a communication published in the Advertiser of Oct. 7, and recommended by the Editors as from " gentleman ofthefirst respectabilily in Saginaw," and to those contained in another communication published in the Advertiser of Oct. 22, as from "a gentleman of the highest respectabilily in Saginaw. " The charges embodied in these Communications are the follou'ing: 1. That I solicited the nomination of the Democrats. 2. That I avowed mysèlf a democrat, rof course, a member of the Democratie aarty, or the charge means nothing.) 3. That I pledged myself to support democratie men and measures. 4. And not to discuss the subject of Abolitionism in the Legislature. Every one of the foregoing statements [ pronounce utterly false, and further, that they cannot be supported in whole or in part by the testimony of any credile witness in the county or out of it. The shout ofexultation that went up from the whig wire-pullers at Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, and elsewhere in thisState, in view of the nomination, struck error into the corresponding class of wire-pullers of the Democratie party in íese same places. The erv that "all vas" (nearly) "lost," soon feil in full horus on the democracy of Saginaw County, rousing up the "Corresponding Committee" here - or rather on e or two f them - from their torpor. ín the conusion of their starting-up, they seem to ïave overlooked, what would have been ie best defence against the accusing Vhigs - the truth, the simple truth. For vhat more could the public generally, or leir party in particular, have required f them, than the statement, that the nomination had been made without any eference to general, or party politics, ut only with a view to the ordinary legislation of the state, in which the interests of the county would necessarily be comprehended. But no: with what would almost seem an instinctive centrifugal ropulsion from truth, they resort to a ibellous imputation on me to excuse what now began to appear to them as their riunder. On the 9th of October, a cali for a emocratic mass meeting was issued, with the names of G. D. Williams, Thomas McCarty, A. F. Hayden, N. Beach and Sidney S. Campbell, Corresponding Committee for this County, attached to it. - Neither Mr. Campbell, Mr. McCarty nor Mr. Hayden signed their names te the cali, nor diJ they know of it until it was in circulation. Whether Mr. Beach was treated in the same manner, I am not informed. Mr. Williams is to be regarded as the sole author of this piece of party effrontery. The cali declares that I had attempted to "impose" myself on the "Democracy of Saginaw as a Democrat" - that theimposition had just been detected - that the facts (of my nomination) had gone abroad; that the Whigs were taking advantage of them; that they must be counteracted, and that their democratie friends were astonished &c, all winding up with an earnest exhortation to the faithful to forget "LOCAL INTERESTS" and "come to the rescue &c." I will not take up time in pointing out the inconsistencies, and falsehoods of this frontless manifestó. That, I will leave for you to do by adverting to the statements contained in the foregoing account of the whole affiur. To these statements however, I will adc the followïng, from a letter of William Finley, Esq. of Livingston County, New York, published in the Genesee Demo crat. Extra. Mr. Finley is well acquain ted in this county, having formerly livec here some two years, and been actively engaged in business during that time. - He isone of the Judges of the county in which he now resides, and a member o thé Democratie party. , "Leicester, Nov. 2, 1844. Mr. G. F. Shankland: - Dear Sir: - The letter purporting to have been written by Mr. J. G. Birney to J. B. Garland on 2(3 th September 1844, in which Mr. B. is represented as having pledged "to go for Democratie men anc mensures" and thathe would "forego the agitation of the slavéry question," is in my opinión a Forgery, the affidavits and certificates which aresoinduslriously cireulated to establish it, to the contrary nothwithstanding. I was in Saginaw City from the afternoon of the 18th, to the morning of 21st Oct., and not a man there with whom l conversed, Whig oiDemocrntr then believed that Mr. B. had ever authonzed Mr. Garland to make the statements contnined in the above letter." ' "1 liada conversaron with Mr. Birney on. the30thoC Sept., nt Detroit, in which he gave tho lie to every material part of the Garland letter us now circulnted." As soon as 1 was made acquainteS' with this daring nttempt to injure me and deceive my well meaning neighbors, I detennined to reach home if possible before the election in this State, and exposé the unworthy device in the presence of the people. A snow storm detained ine at Buftalo three days, and I was unable to reach Saginaw till the day aftcr the elec'tion. Every engine, both geat and small, of the Whigs was brought to bear on me, as a matter of course. Their devotion to Mr. Clay, quickened by the bright prospect of good things to come, in the event of his success, overmastered all other cousiderations. The passion rose in a few instances, to the intensity of manía, marked, too, by a type as inconvenient as singular - unusal indijference as to matter of f act. Hindoo prostration could nol have been lower - nor Hindoo worship more debasing. The zeal and compactness of the whigs in this county, and the división among the democrats secured the election of the Representativo to the former. Thewhig candidate received 105 votes - the democratie 71 - I, 38. The foregoing embraces all the material facts of this case which was made - altogether beyond my expectations, one of so reinarkable a character in the late canvass. There are, however, two or three particulars, not referred to, that I will notice, in order that none of the fabrications to which it gave rise, may pass without correction - so far as they o my knowledge. In the Utica Gazette of Oct. 15, is the bllowing: - "In conversation with a. leading Locoloco, in the cars, coming to Albany, ir. Birney, said that he feared Ohio vould "ote for Mr. Clay, though he vas not without hope it might be carried for Mr. Polk." Ánother versión somewhat varying Vom this, is in the Clay Tribune of Oct. 26:- "He has been heard in this State to exjress fears that the Birney vote in Ohio woyld not be strong enough to give that State to Polk." Judge Oliver, of Yates County, New York, 1 suppose, is the "leading Locofoco" here intended for he was the only gentleman of the Democratie party with whom I had any conversation, on the occasion referred to, on the prospects of theelection. I expressed to him the opinión, that the vote of Ohio would be de'mocratic, because Mr. Clay had never run well in former trials there - considering ie was so well known to the people of that State. At that time, too, I thought the Liberty party vote in Ohio would not e less than twelve thousand. This, too, [ think italtogether probable that I mentioned to Judge Oliver, as I had to every one else, whenever the expression of my opinión on the subject was called for.: - That Judge Oliver has authorized the above statements, I cannot believe on the authority of the papers from which they are quoted. If, however, he has, I doubt not, it has been from misunderstanding what I said, for I have at no time, certainly not for the last five years, intended to express any sympathy in the success of the Democratie party. In the Albany Journal of Oct. 19, the Editor informs hls readers, that it has, at last, become his "imperative duty to exhibit Mr. Birney to the People as a man who has notonly sacrificed his principies,but of impeached veracity." The charge against my veracity, which only I shall notice is grounded on the fact, thal, in my first letter to the Tribune, I did not distinctly admit, thnt I knew, before leaving home, that I would be nominated by the Democratie Convention. Now the fact is, that I not only did not know that such a nomindtion would be made, but I did not expert it. With no "leading Loco-Foco" or party ''manager" did I have any conversation in reference to it. Indeed I supposed, all of that class woulc oppose my nomination. When I Inst saw Mr. Garland, who is not one of the wire-pullers of the party, but one of its rank and file, as" were the others who were favorable to my nomination - he was not even a delégate to the Convention. He, I think, had scarcely any expectation that I would be nominated. - l know, I had but very little. I lookec on it, indeed as so improbable, that on hearing of it indireclly, I did not consider it as having certainly been made. J wished to hear directly from some one who was at the Convention, or to see it notified in the public journals of that part of the country, before I would hazarc placing myself in the ridiculous position of deciding on a nomination that might not have been made. Least of all did ] think that any rule of propriety bounc meto abandon a safe position at the cal of a mendacious party print, how urgent soever that cali might be. As soon as ] learned by a letter directly fromSaginav City, that the nomination had been made, I no treatcd it os contin gent.In reference to the "Garland Forgery" - a fitting climax to the slanders of the "Saginaw Nomination" - the labors of the Liberty Association of Detroit have left me but little to say. That the very Scribe who committed it to paper should je detected is hardly to be looked for. - Nor is tliis necessary toa proper decisión by the public, in the case of others who, adrniuing they vvere not the manual perjetrators ol' the deed, yet so carefully concealed from the public all knowledge of its having been perpetrated, that it accomplished, as far as its unimpeded projress could, the foul work for which it ïad been prepared. The material facts of the case are but but they needno addition to them, till the Whig Corres3onding Committee as such, and not individually, shall salisfactorily explain them. The forged handbill, or "Extra," was dated Oct. 21. The 23d, it was found in Detroit in the possession, the exclusive Dossession, so far as is known, of the Corresponding Committee, with whom were associated, at the time, the Rev. Híiram L. Miller of Saginaw, and the aublisher of a Whig Journal in this State, whose name is not given in the Signal of Liberty, in which the statements concerning him are to be found. The person, ast referred to, saw several packages - it is not stated ichere - apparenily prejared and directed, for the mail. One of the number present took out one of the Extras, and it was read to the commny who conversed about its authenticity, and concluded it was a forgery. - Vir. Miller has stated, that the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Jacob M. Howard, and Mr. Harding, of the Advertiser, a member, as well as the others present "unequivocally reprobated" it as a forgery. Mr. Smart, one of the Committee was despatched to Pontiac, twenty-five miles distant by Rail Road - to make 'urther enquiry. The handbill was published in the most distant, as well as the nearest States, at the most suitable times for affecting the elections and so as to make its contradiction by me impossible, except to a very limited extent. The knowledge that such a handbill was in existence; that it had been seen and handled and condemned, as a forgery, in Detroit, by the Corresponding Committee; that packages of it were being transmitted to the extreme East and that there vvere none for Ohio; - all knowledge of this was carefully withheld from the public. No description of the Extra, was given - no al lusion to it was made - not the slightest clue to the existence of the forgery was furnished by those and those only who had satisfied themselves of its object and character. - About the same time, Mr. McCoy, a Whig, of Columbus, Ohio, received a package, supposed to be, of the Extras, from some person in Detroit, whose name he has not yet thought proper to reveal, addressed to the Editor of a Columbus paper, and to be put into the Post Office there. [This may account for the fact so carefully noted in the Advertiser of Dec. 2, that none of the forged packages in the Post Office in Detroit were destinedfor Ohio.] The forgery was published in Ohio by the Whig press generally some three or four days before the election in that State which was on the lst of Nov. lts genuïneness was vouched for by the Editors. It was first publicly seen in Detroit in the Ohio papers, brought there on the 3Oth or 31sl October. It has never been republished by the Advertiser. But, the Salurday next before the election in this State, after the Extra had been republished in the Free Press, and tho forgery publicly contradicted the Commitlee of the Liberty Association at Detroit - that print declared, that "as to the genuinness of the alleged copy of Mr. Birney's letter to Mr. J. B. Garland, we know nothingand can say nothing. Il is certain, that some such letter was written. We wait for further dcvelopements. Defending itself [Dec. 2,) the samejournal says: "we immediately suspected it to be a Loco Foco forgery," and "cautioned our own readers, in general terms, against all such Loco Foco frauds." October 24, the Editors write to an Eastern print, saying they are led to "suspect" it is a forgery - ihat they are "in doubt'1 whether the letter purportingto be mine is a genuine copy. this too, according to Mr. Millers's account of the matter, after they had "une quivocally reprobated" the Extra as a forgery. So much for the Advertiser, the organ of the Corresponding Committee Mr. Howard, the chairman, solemnly as severates, (Letter in the Boston Atlas o Nov. 30,) that "of the exislenco or origin of the handbill in question, he had no knowledge, information or suspicion, un til some days after its publication and cir culation." This the chairman will doubt less be able lo reconcjle with Mr. Mili er's statement, that he was present at the conclave, and united with the others present in "unequivocally reprobating" the handbill as a forgery. If Mr Smart made a Report of his mission to Pontiac, I have not been so fortúnate as to see it. I am not aware," that the two remaining members of the Committee have published any thingof their individual connection with this matter.But, at last, individual responses and aelf-expurgations are not what is wanted. Nolhing of this nature will now satisfy he public, in regard to the connection of he Committee with the forgery. It vas he most extensive, subtlc, ingeniously contri ved, and at the same lime, the mosl daring and proflígate altempt that has ever been set on foot by any part)' in this country against the freedom of elections and the purity oí public moráis. It requires the most signal rebuke, or the efects on the cormnunity will be al most as njürioHS as if the villany had been crowned with success. What the public ïas n right to dernand, and what cannot je refused to it by the Commiftee, without at the same time acknowledgingtheir own wnnt of titJe to common respect or confidence; and what, too, the sound portion of the Whig party owe it to themselves to insist on until it shall be fully executed by the Committee - is a calm exposition of all the facts connectod with this transaction sofar as they know them now, and as they may be still furlher developed by the most stringent investigation. Especially will the peopledemand to be informed of the issue of Mr. Smart's Mission to Pontiac, or further north - for what he went - whom tosee - whom he did see and converse with, and wbat additional light he returnëd with; aïso, to lave before them copies of all letters, i f the origináis cannot be had, written to Whig Editors at the East or elsewhere, authenticated in the most unexceptionable marmer; also, to know, who it was' that laced in Mr. McCoy's hands the package for Columbus, and to whom it was addressed. These facts particularly, and all others that can be ascertained by the strictest diligence and faithfulness, if presented by the committee in that sober dress which nnocency usually wears, will even y et neet with impartial and candid consideration from the public. This the corresxmding Committee must do as a Committee. Nothing else will be accepted. As a committee they sent torth the affidavit of Driggs inlo the world; as a committee they will be held to repair the public wrongs they have committed bv withholdng the forgery from the world. Neither abusive articles given to the public through the columns of the whig press. nor coarse and swaggering letters by individuáis of the committee addressed to individuals of the Liberty party oroflheir Own party, can have the lenst possible influence, except to strengthen the unfavorable suspicions, lhat are already beginning to sffltle down on the Committee and the other gentlemen who, it would seem, were assoeiated wiih them where the discovery ot the handbill is alleged first to have been made.05a Clingman and Yajxcey fought tbeir duel n Maryiand, and by the laws of liiat State, they are felons, llable to several yenrs imprisonment in the Ponitentiary. Thus, if justice were doue them. ihey wnuld be compnnions of Torrey, in the Wëaïinjjf depnrtmout. lnstead of thal, they rcturned lo Conyres. and the next day Clingrn;ui appearcd in the House, and was greeled by the members, including John Quincy AiJiiui?, who lir.s ilways professcd the greatcst iiorror uf ilttoljing, as though he had dono imtliing but wliit watproper and praisewortby. So linie ca be known of the real cliuractcr of mlikiualtfrom the administraron nf huma justice! - He who helps nis feüow m.in to be Tree, i& clothed, marked, and imprisoned at a felón: he who takes deadiy aim at the lifo iiis fellow sits in the seat of honor, receives eight dollars a day, and legidlates for twenty millioní. of people!

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News