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. tbe Hon. T. P. EsKRIDGE:
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ypur yindictiVe and laWless attack upon

 me. Tho malignant violence with winch

 you have assailed me, sustained before the

 public by your christian professions and ot- ficial rank leaves me no alternative but

 to defend myself before the public with

 the only weapon you have left me. Con Huccted in this crusade against my public and private character, with nearly all the i Federal Officers of the Territory, with the 1 Chief Magistrate at their head your acces- sion to the ranks of the Swiss advance

 guard can add but little weight at home. 1t IS to the stranger alone, that would address myselfin a vindication from yoHr asuersions; and in so doing, have nothing 1 to oppose tothe weight which your rank and 41retensions give, but the simple truth. I cannot, perhaps, introduce my defence

 more appropriately to the public,than by 1 hasty biography of your life III Arkansas

 having known you from the first moment

 almost after your landing. l solemnly

 pledge myself for the truth of every ma

 terial fact shall state; and, when put to

 the test if do not proee each and every

 one concinsiveiy, am willing 10 be

 thought the calumniator you would have

 me. If, in the nasty portrait shall draw, the public shall see the lineaments of a Imercenary, selfish, mindless, corrupt, mis creant, they will, i trust, remember, that,

 as limner, l have had no selection of my subject, and that moral may be drawn,

 not only from the monument which re-

 cords the actions of the virtuous and patri-

 otic dead, but even from the hlstory ofthe l scare-crow fcion crcaisiug in his chains.

 In the last of the year 1920, yoa landed

 in Arkansas, destitute and bankrupt.- 1 ' ou brought me letter of Introduction

 rom one of my brothers, couehcd Tn the

 common place terms Of such epistles.- From tue moment we met, you fastened

 upon me, and never did colIared spaniel seek the service of master with more 1 fawHing syeophancy, than your Honor sought mine. l was young and ipexperi- enced-you were poor and coaaPtia'a, and

 l could not resist your united assault upon Imy sympathy and vanity. Your blind and serviIe adGiation, excited the contempt of 1 those around you; but destitute of shame,

 and intent only on sharing the patronage of my office, you perseyes ed. At this pe- riod Judge Selden arrived in AFl1aneas, during my absence from the Seat Of Go- vernnent, and you sought by the same arts to win him; hls matured judgment foit-

 cd you in tie attempt, and on my return, you essayed to produce misund erstand- ! ing between ns, by giving to me, in conf ide0ce, unkind expressions of Selden's- A day of his death, charged you with the

 grossest treachery to me, in your attempt

 ed confid entiai conversations with him.--

 ou denied the charge, and at the moment believed you. From that period, (with- out being tteH protected with the mantle of religion,) be denounced you in public eve ry where, as slanderous, lying, corrupt knave--as every way a scound ndrel--he cl- bowed you in the street, and wherever he

 met you. 9ou clustered at distance, and submitted tamely when near. Jndge Sel den never relaxed in his opinions of you at any after period. When he had left home on the affair of honor in which he fell, you wrote him. asking his forgivness,

 he spurncd you even then, as toe corrupt

 for a contact with gentlemen. In the year 1921, the segislatore chan ged the Judicial System, and established

 Circuit Courts. Then nearly all the pro- fession were mere boys, wild, and at times

 dissipated. You then, as now, had monk 1 lsh puritanicai cast, which, in appearance,

 gave you claims above those around, and |

 as Acting -Governor, I made yeu Judge, not as you alledge, upon the recommends | tion of the bar, for it Is certainly true 1

 that at the moment l was filling up the l

 commission, most, if not all, of them, |

 were drawing up Temonstrance against |

 your appointment; and you were only say

 ed the modification of that protest, by the 1 annnnciation of your appointment before

 they had completed the protest. You lied | grossly, Judge, when you sad you under

 stood otherwise. Shortly after your ap-

 pointment, I left the Territory for Ken

 tncky, where, with the exception of few

 days, remained moro than year. When returned in the spring of 1893, canvass

 had commenced here for Congress. and

 Knowing from what had passed between

 us, that wonla prefer another to you, I

 found you seeking elevation by traducing

 me. few days aftermy return, I learnt

 from his ExcelIency James Miller. that in conversation with him, you had made a statement in relation to myself which I pronounced falsehood, and whilst was yet indignantly giving 1t the lie, you rod np- charged the falsehood upon you. and .orced you, both before the Governor and In public, to admit that there was not word of truth in what you had said. A few days, however, previous to this lime the uoyernor had handed me a letter writ ten by you to him, during my afss.saa ;n h hentucky,l in which you had been stuff clently lavish of encmoium towards him, and had treated me with marked severity. z styling me a Chair brained boy.' The Governor had seen toe much of yon not 10 : Dc dlsgnsted at such treachery, and hand . ed me the letter. had been at the same l tune receiving letters from you, in Ken- t lucky, in your usual style of adulation to { me, and treating the Governor with the F highest disrespect. took your letter, and 1 [ went to the Honorable A. Scott's to find {. one of yours to me, designing 1t as coua- i, er present 10 His Excellency. failed to 7, md one Tn my trnnk, but showed to the | ir. Scott's your letter to the Governor; t lhey had just finished reading it when you c came Tn to pay your respects to me, and l. d