IV. CONVENTION ELECTIONS

when the sun shines, as endeavour to make us believe that the manu-
script of the Ulster County Farmer is not his hand writing.
In his address, in last week's paper to you, he asserts, "That he is
not the author of the Ulster County Farmer, nor has he given any
authority to the Printer or any other person to publish that piece."
He does not add, that he has not been aiding in the composition,
that he has not been privy to it, that he has not copied it. In all these
particulars he is totally silent, and by unequivocal assertion, "that he
is not the author," imagines that he has fully convinced the public of
his innocence and integrity-but the veil is too thin not to be seen
through.-There was no other alternative but an obstinate denial: the
cursed blunder of the Farmer's own nomination, rendered this the
lesser evil; a public confession would have been self-condemnation,
and better trust to bold assertions and the partial opinions of friends,
than openly to proclaim our own weakness, vanity and ambition. Mr.
Elmendorf observes to you, "That if I suspected him for the author,
& wished to have a true information, I might have been satisfied of
this without any trouble, he would never disown his publication, nor
deny a man satisfaction, &c." In the name of common sense, would
not the information in private have been the same which he has al-
ready given to you in public. It was in fact so, before he asserted it in
last week's paper; he called on me and declared he was not the author
of the piece signed an Ulster County Farmer: And yet in both in-
stances (if a similarity of writing is a true criterion) I must either
believe he tells a falsehood, or refuse the evidence of my own
senses.-Mr. Elmendorf "cautions me in my future addresses to you,
not to exceed the bounds of truth and decency." The former I shall
strictly adhere to; the limits of the latter, with regard to him, I shall
contract or extend as his conduct deserves.-His threats and oblique
challenges to me are wind. The worthy officers of the militia are brave
and generous, but I believe in my soul, that the author of the Ulster
County Farmer has not a single spark either of real fortitude or gen-
erosity in his composition. That piece was pointedly aimed at me, and
I appeal to such of you gentlemen who are acquainted with me,
whether it required a second thought after you had read it, to make
the application-Yet you are told, that, "that piece contained nothing
more pointed against Mr. Addison than any other individual, and that
my publishing it was particularly levelled at me, proceeded from a
conviction that I was the character described in it. This observation
is as weak as it is unjust; it is the subterfuge of guilt and unworthy of
notice." Hitherto I have endeavoured to fix, as near as the nature of
the case will admit, the author of the Ulster County Farmer; I have

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