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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1849
96
time unable to perceive either the pertinence or fitness of these enquiries as addressed to me. You were not one of my im- mediate constituents. To their interests my services were due, and my whole attention devoted. Your interrogatories, there- fore, caused me not a single reflection, until they were again obtruded upon my recollection by the announcement contained in your recent letter of the fact that they remained unanswered. Our relations, however, since that time, it seems have become changed. Your present official, or quasi-official "position," as a member of "the Executive Cornrnittee of the State of South Carolina," would of itself give dignity and importance to what- ever might emanate from your pen. In such a capacity above, I should cheerfully acknowledge your right to interrogate me as to my official course and opinions; but when, in addition to this, you appear upon the arena as the champion of another, your double capacity gives double to whatever "lesson" you may please to read, or to whatever rebuke you may please to administer. This imposing duplicity of character and "posi- tion,"-This union of the committee-man and the champion, renders your communication worthy of special notice. From the language in which you are pleased to refer to the late circular addressed by me to my constituents, you have evidently misconstrued both its import and its object. 2 It was issued several days previous to the adjournment of Congress, and its intention was to make known to my constituents the course and measures of the gentleman who had denounced me for my vote on the Oregon Bill. 3 He had made the attack, and in thus repelling his assault, I simply discharged a duty which I owed to those whom I represented, no less than to myself. The charges and facts arrayed against that gentleman in my circular, he can neither repel nor deny. As history, they are as veritable and well established as any which the threatened pub- lication of your long kept "Diary" can disclose. They were made and published to the world when the gentleman was present, and could have answered had he chosen. But he was silent, when he should have spoken, if at all; and that silence, as he well knew, was tantamount to an unequivocal acknowledge- ment, on his part, of the truth of my statements and charges against him. But, although from the condition of things, the gentleman finds himself unable to carry on the war in person,
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