Elmira, Nov. 20, 1860.
Friends and Fellow Citizens: --
In addressing a public letter to you, through the press, I am not ignorant of the manner in which it shall be received among you. I have counted the cost, and am willing to pay on the demand. Besides the duty I owe to the public, making them acquainted with some of the secret causes of an almost ten years’ contest, I have a duty due to myself in defending my present position from secret assertions and misinterpretations, current in our streets. The extraordinary activity and malicious insinuations reaching my ears, may turn the heads and hearts of the timid and the dependent aside from their own judgment and desires; so that injury, before I am aware of it, may be done to my good name now, when the question is frequently put, what is all this commotion about?
A full view from my stand-point may have the effect of bringing out an answer, which, of all things, I wish, might be given by the head of the opposition. At any rate, now every mouth is shut to all private accusations. The honorable and independent man will surely reply to every secret insinuation. “Be a man, and speak openly.” Answer that letter of the 20th November, or “let them forever hold the peace.”
The letters, which shall be produced for the first time, though written from a member of the congregation, are public letters, inasmuch as they were from an Elder, a Trustee and Treasurer, who, as is well known, has taken for many years the active part of performing the most difficult duties of those offices. This is put in to obviate the objection which some may make to what appears, at first sight, as private correspondence. I have in my hands many private letters of Mr. Robinson's which are not here: and only such as explain the public events are inserted. There was a time when that friend of mine required the same vindication as is here put forth on my own behalf. Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Robinson had to bear the brunt of censure for calling me, during the time that elapsed previous to the fall of 1858, unjustly, as I know full well.
I shall endeavor to give a history that will throw light upon some dark places, without bringing up names of individuals; and shall only depart from this where they must be
