God. that the man whose name I have men-
tioned in these remarks is in part the cause
of my unhappiness.
My brother was a boy seventeen years old.
Think of it; seventeen years old. This gen-
tleman is a man of mature age, whose head
is silvered by the frosts of many winters; a
man of mature judgment; a man who un-
derstands; a man of no ordinary intelligence;
a man who understands thoroughly the his-
tory of this crisis; who understands thor-
oughly the history of the great quarrel which
has separated, in feeling at least, the two
great sections of this great empire. This individual
comes to my brother, an unsophisti-
cated boy, an ignorant boy, with nothing
more than a common school education, per-
fectly ignorant of the history of these trou-
bles, and offers to pay his expenses south.
Now if he did offer to pay his expenses to go
south, is it reasonable to suppose that he did
that and nothing more? If there was a doubt
remaining on my brother's mind as to whether
or not he ought to go, is it or is it not likely
that that gentleman tried to remove that
doubt? The very fact of the offer was per-
suading him. I contend that the very offer
to pay his expenses was of itself a persuasion
to go.
Last fall my brother was captured, was
arrested, and he lay four months at Fort Mc-
Henry. After a great deal of trouble I suc-
ceeded in getting him out. While he was
lying there, wasting away with disease, lying
there under an imputation disgraceful to
him, and calculated to disgrace the social
position of his family—the. imputation of a
spy—I could not do otherwise than feel sore.
Ifeel sore now when I recollect the language
my brother used to me in May, 1861, and I
feel indignant. And when I remember that
the influence then used by this gentleman, in
part at least, was the cause of my brother's
going south, entailing disgrace on himself
and disgrace on his family, I cannot help
feeling sore and feeling indignant. My feel-
ings are mortified and wounded. It is the
severest blow I ever received in my life. I
have alluded to the unhappy event which oc-
curred on the 14th of November, 1861; I
mean unhappy to me, changing my position
in life. But even that, though it wrung tears
of blood from me, even that was not as vio-
lent a blow to my feelings as the course pur-
sued by this brother of mine, influenced in
part to pursue that course by this gentleman.
No man can conceive what my feelings have
been, unless he has been in that predicament.
You may form some faint conception of what
my feelings have been, but only a faint con-
ception.
If I have been guilty of some little indis-
cretion, in a moment when my feelings may
have had more control over me than they
ought to have bad, this convention at least
will make some allowance for it. I do not |
make this acknowledgment as any apology.
I have no apologies to make for one single
solitary syllable uttered in that. speech; none;
none whatever, sir; none. I stand here as a
wronged man. I was not only his brother,
but his guardian, and to some extent respon-
sible for what that boy did; not responsible
perhaps in law, but I was responsible to the
memory of his father, and to the memory of
his mother; and I was responsible to his fu-
ture history. I advised that boy not lo go.
1 lectured him by the hour. And when my
brother told me that Mr. Williams had offered
to pay his expenses South, it was reasonable
for me to conclude that all the lessons I had
imparted to him, were done away with by the
lessons of this gentleman, I do not know
the extent of those lessons, I have not said
in my speech that this gentleman lectured to
him as I did. I only say that my brother
told me in the month of May, 1861, that Mr.
Williams did offer to pay his expenses; and 1
submit to gentlemen if it was not reasonable
for me to conclude that these propositions did
not end with simple air; if it was not rea-
sonable for me to conclude that he had per-
suaded him to go otherwise than simply by
making that offer.
1 will not detain the convention longer.
My feelings have perhaps taken a little more
control of me on this occasion than they
ought to have done; but gentlemen will make
allowance for that. If I have tresspassed
longer upon their time and attention than 1
ought to have done, I am ready to apologize
to the convention. I will apologize further,
for asking the convention to listen to the
statement of an aggrieved and an injured
man.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I have but a word to say.
I know nothing of these matters. I beg to
be considered as not asserting any one fact of
my own knowledge. This respectable gentle-
man, who has been known to me for years as
a man of high standing and position, has
asked at my hands this favor. His statement
to me is that for the first time on Saturday,
be heard from the pamphlet speech or from
some other source, the statement that he had
persuaded this young gentleman and others to
go South, as stated again now, and as copied
precisely in this affidavit. This information
came to him here on Saturday last. He knew
nothing of these further charges and imputa-
tions. He instantly went in pursuit of Mr.
George E. Valliant, the only name given
here, the other persons not being known to
him, and not being named in the speech, and
he obtained from Mr. Valliant this certificate,
the authenticity of which is not disputed, 1
understand, in which Mr. Valliant says that
no such thing occurred. He did not persuade
him. He did not persuade to his knowledge
any other person. This gentleman further
states to me that he holds himself perfectly
able to prove that the gentleman, who is now
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