in which he answers Mr. Brown in a spirited manner. And we would further remark, that the same sentiments are very applicable to many of his envious, jealous, and bitter persecutors at the present time, whom we could name, and who are ambitious of fame and public favour; but do not deem them of sufficient importance to receive a passing notice, or to be designated by the finger of scorn.

"I feel the truest pleasure in seeing and knowing that my friends and the community resent the dishonourable treatment I received from Mr. Brown in his sophistical pleadings. The assumed privilege of abusing and calumniating credible witnesses, as practised by gentlemen of the bar, is calculated seriously to retard the operation of law and justice; and, were all men of my opinion on this subject, it would be relinquished by them in all cases sustained by conclusive evidence.

"Let me lay before you a few of the unfair propositions, or rather syllogisms, in the syllabus of his pleadings.

"He declared I had acted with deception, and practised a falsehood on John A. Murrell, in procuring his confidence by representing myself as a horse-hunter and a villain; and contended that he who will act a falsehood or practise a deception, will-for it is but the next step swear to it: and therefore my testimony was undeserving of credit, and should not be listened to or respected.

"He represented me as the friend of Murrell, and declared that a man who would betray the confidence of a friend was a villain :-I had betrayed the confidence of my friend, ergo, I was a villain.

"To this unfair mode of reasoning, I thus reply to

Mr. Brown:-When I took measures to secure the conviction of John A. Murrell, I was not proceeding against a friend, but an enemy; an enemy not only to me, but to every honest man in the community: whose outrages were insufferable, and whose systematic plans evaded every effort to bring him to justice. Thus the dignity of our laws and institutions, which were established for the protection of our lives, liberty, and property, lay insulted and trampled under the feet of that daring incendiary and his piratical legion, who gloried in the havoc they were making of our property, and the dissensions they produced in the social bands of society; for to both these ends were their purposes directed. In my proceedings against this formidable banditti, I considered myself justified in imitating measures which have been taken by the greatest patriots and generals of our country, whose opinions and acts we are bound to respect.

"As to the deceptions I practised on John A. Murrell in obtaining his confidence and disclosures, I refer you to the following in justification of my course.

"Recollect the deception practised by General Washington, at the time Major Andre, the British spy, was captured, in trying to get Arnold the traitor back into his possession; and recollect Washington's reasonings on that subject. Sir, they will sustain me, and cover Mr. Brown with shame and confusion. And again I refer you to the deception of Colonel Washington, practised at Clermont. See his stratagem in mounting the trunk of a pine-tree on wagon-wheels, so as to resemble a fieldpiece, which caused the garrison to surrender, and has ever been considered a gallant act of Col. Washington. But, because I dissembled the outward bearing of a villain for the purpose of learning the conduct of many villains, and ridding the community of a craft de

structive to the peace and happiness of all civil and honest society, Mr. Brown is not willing that I should ever wear any other character than the infamous one I represented to John A. Murrell, and he professed to see no virtuous motives in my conduct which propelled me to action. No, sir, as there was no large fee, or other selfish consideration, to influence my actions, it was a mysterious matter with him, because his own narrow soul is too small to render the same services :and for that very reason, all such men as Milton Brown have no right to express their contracted views of me and my conduct; and, should they express them, they are entitled to no credit. I consider him, and all such men, nothing more than the organ through which the venom of a detestable and piratical clan of villains was vented towards me, whose machinations and calumny were ignobly piled on my character by Mr. Brown, like another ignominious hireling in iniquity.

"And what makes his skepticism and abuse the more disgusting to good feeling and sense, they were unsupported by even the shadow of evidence, and must have emanated from a desire to please a train of piratical villains, whose only purpose of life is the destruction of all the social ties of society, and the prostration and perversion of our national institutions, that have hitherto been the pride and boast of all freemen, and the safe guardians of our lives and property.

"Were not my evidence and veracity supported by as good citizens as our country can boast of? Why, then, the volley of abuse, sarcasm, and filth, that was spawned and belched forth on my character by that son of vanity? Is it criminal to stand up in the defence of our country, our wives, our children, our mothers, our sisters, and all the tender and sacred ties of humanity and justice? If so, then I am a criminal, and deserve

all the slander and abuse I have received at his hands; and I am then willing to concede the right to the professional lawyer to shake hands with the vilest slanderer and defamer of character, and claim him as an equal in crime and detraction; but, until then, Milton Brown is a disgrace to the high bearing and dignity of the profession of the law. It is the duty of the lawyer to see that his client is legally dealt with: but he has no right to abuse a witness merely to please a villain and his friends. Sir, you will please indulge me in a few syllogistic remarks in answer to Mr. Brown.

"Any attorney at law, who will lie and misrepresent evidence for the sake of indulging in abuse and slander on the character of a witness, is a base, corrupt scoundrel, and should not be respected by any man. Milton Brown lied and misrepresented my evidence for the sake of indulging in abuse and slander on my character when a witness: therefore Milton Brown is a base, corrupt scoundrel, and should not be respected by any man."

Mr. Brown has since very justly experienced the weight of Mr. Stewart's argument against him, in a political point of view, and he could not have been touched on a more sensitive part, as he is as ambitious as corrupt. Mr. S. can never forgive Brown for the base and unmanly treatment he received at his hands in Murrell's trial; nor is it to be wondered at, when we reflect on the motives that governed his actions on that occasion. Mr. Brown thought, as Mr. S. had left Madison county, and was residing at a distance, any undue liberties he might indulge in with his character would soon be forgotten, as he had no relations or family influence in the country to breed

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opposition against him; and that any laurels he might gain in a professional point of view, by using the means of lying, misrepresentation, sarcasm, abuse, and a sacrifice of all honour and principle, would only be considered smart, as it was practised on a strange young man, who was destitute of family influence to hold him in check. When we take this view of the subject, who can blame Mr. Stewart's resentment? But Mr. Brown was not apprized of Mr. S.'s popularity in that country, or he would have been more

cautious.

We will now offer the statements of General Bradford, of Jackson, Tennessee, who was the prosecuting counsel on the part of the state.

"Jackson, Tennessee, October 10th, 1835.

"MR. VIRGIL A. STEWART :--

"SIR-At your request, and in justice to you and other persons concerned in the trial and conviction of John A. Murrell, late of Madison county, Tennessee, for the crime of negro-stealing, I deem it my duty to make the following statement.

"At the July term of the Circuit Court of said county, I endicted the said John A. Murrell for the crime above described, at which time he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be confined in the penitentiary for ten years; I have prosecuted the pleas of the state for many years, during all which time I have never known any prisoner to have a fairer or more impartial trial than Murrell had on this occasion. He was defended by several counsel, and that, too, with zeal and ability; and they were allowed by the court every latitude usual in such cases; and the jury who passed upon his case