IV. CONVENTION ELECTIONS

in the integrity of a man, who has the effrontery to recommend him-
self in a public news-paper; who is now running into the extreme of
opposition against the federal Constitution, to atone for his former
approbation of the system? I intend in a future paper to consider this
Ulster county Farmer, and prove to the public, that his charges against
that gentleman are false, his reasons of opposition contracted and
illiberal, unmeritted and ungrateful.-In the mean time be on your
guard on Tuesday next.3
Lucas Elmendorf Jr, to the Electors of Ulster County
Poughkeepsie Country Journal, 29 April 1788
To the ELECTORS OF ULSTER COUNTY
Gentlemen, A piece written by John Addison, under the signature
of the Ulster County Elector, is addressed to you in last weeks Pough-
keepsie paper, in which he takes the liberty pointedly to declare that
I am the author of a piece under the signature of the Ulster County
Farmer, which cautions you against a character, who puffed up by the
most arrogant assurance is striving to impose himself upon you by
every sinister contrivance, as a member of the ensuing Convention,
who grasps at every flattering appearance of importance, and who is
so eager to become a Statesman, that the last year he voted himself
for a Representative in Assembly, &c. If I recollect right, it contains
nothing more pointed against Mr. Addison than any other individual;
unless therefore he really is that character, and is convinced that you
cannot mistake him; he never could with propriety publish that it is
particularly levelled at him, that (to use his words) it is a most bitter
invective (or rather Billingsgate) endeavouring to inflame your minds
against him-no wonder then that you could not mistake him since
he so directly points at himself,
This is the man, here Roman fix your mark,
His soul is black as his complexion's dark.
As many of the respectable characters among you know that I have
been altogether opposed to the idea of being proposed as a Candidate
for Convention or Assembly, and that I was not put to the necessity
of holding up myself (with which he charges me) if I had any ambition
to become a representative; to those I would think this address alto-
gether unnecessary. But as there are others who I suppose to be un-
acquainted with my character, it is more particularly to them I take
the liberty to assert that I am not the author of the Ulster County
Farmer, nor have I given any authority to the Printer or any other
person to publish that piece. Mr. Elector however declares to you that

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