Sally Campbell Preston McDowell Thomas Miller
MSA SC 3520-2259
First Lady of Maryland, 1842
From the Statement of Francis Thomas*
TO THE PUBLIC
Montevue, Frederick County, Maryland
February 19, 1845
Conspicuous calumniators, who have labored to forestall and pervert
public sentiment, have left me no alternative but this, to
the exquisitely painful, publication. Sensible of the partial success
of their contrivances, for a long period of time I submitted
almost in silence to the shocking and disgusting slanders of me, which
they disseminated. For a woman was involved, and even
if I had not tenderly and desperately loved her, sex alone was sacred
in my consideration. If not my wife, even if a stranger, I
could not, without infinite reluctance, expose her frailties, or soil
her character. Never have I taken a liberty with, spoken ill of,
or given umbrage to any virtuous female. At now past life's meridian,
I can with perfect truth avow, that the chastity, privacy, or
society, the name or character of a woman, of any woman of character,
never was invaded or disparaged by any act or word
of mine. Having lived, until somewhat advanced in years, a life of
study and ambition, little familiar with female society, I may
have seemed wanting in that respect and attention for ladies which
no doubt refines and improves man. But to degrade one, as
has become the stern duty and only alternative of my self-preservation,
is a resort to which I could be driven only by the
daggers of the men of her family, aimed at the only portion in life
I have left, dearer to me than life itself -- a character till now
unblemished, and which must and shall be vindicated, at whatever cost.
When the horrible doubts of Mrs. Thomas' fidelity flashed on my mind,
lacerated my affections, disordered, distracted,
unmanned me, even my reproaches were never harsh -- my conduct was
not cruel or arbitrary -- I exercised no overruling
authority, I did not repudiate or drive her from my dwelling. I did
not, could not, even yield positively my belief to the evidences
against her. I still alternately doubted, hoped and confided, and long
felt the excruciating agony of one who doubts yet doats,
and fondly loves.
During several months of anguish, my constant endeavor was to prevail
on her to leave me and return to her father's house,
without public scandal; to separate at least till we might, if possible,
come together again, with my belief in her fidelity restored
by her proofs of it made good. I dreaded public scandal for her sake
and for mine too. I desired, that her parents and friends
might interpose, and either reconciliation or separation be brought
about, without the world's malign intermeddling. To her and
her family alone were my distrusts intimated. The public saw no outbreak,
they had no evidence of estrangement. She continued
apparently unconcerned and sociable in the world as ever. I repressed
bitter feelings by, at any rate, no act or word of
violence, betrayed them to others. I sought her family and besought
their mediation. With great difficulty I prevailed on them to
take part in my distress. They avoided; I insisted on interference.
I offered every explanation and facility of intercourse with
Mrs. Thomas and with myself. I unbossomed to them, and to them alone,
my griefs, indignant or reproachful language. They
cannot deny, that my expostulations were often in tears; and that I
earnestly entreated a domestic investigation and family
judgment, of the complaints I was constrained to prefer, and proofs
I submitted...
...I own therefore anxiety, that they to whom this appeal is addressed,
wrung from me by dire necessity, when all other redress
is denied, I own much anxiety that it may be received as my only alternative
from a life of dishonor, worse than death. I premise
this statement with the assurance, that it never would have been published
if any other resort were left for me. After mildly
entreating an infatuated wife to return to her parents for domestic
trial of my accusations, surrounded and supported by her best
friends; after explaining to them that accusation, and repeating my
prayer for such a trial, and consenting to her leaving me and
going home, as will be hereafter explained, I still and constantly
persevered in a reserve as near as possible to absolute silence;
waiting and hoping for refutal of my fears and restoration of my wife.
In anguish and ill-concealed distraction I waited, if not
patiently, at least forbearingly in silence, till roused from it by
the infernal calumnies of the men of her family, who have
endeavored to acquit her by defaming me. Mrs. Thomas left me and returned
to her father's house with the fruits of marriage in
her bosom, yet did members of her family propagate gross and false
imputations against me, which if true, branded her with
adultery and her child as illegitimate! Yes, while I was living alone
in the solitude of the large Governor's mansion at Annapolis,
shrinking from all association with the world, chief magistrate of
the State of Maryland, for many years before a faithful and not
an unknown member of the Congress of the United States; a man till
then of fair report, whom even party violence had not
attacked in his private character; living thus in such miserable constrained
silence, and subjugation of feeling, as affected me at
times almost to insanity on one subject, the cunning and savage champions
of a rash wife, filled the ears of all who would hear
them with vulgar, blackguard aspersions on my person, character and
reputation. They defamed not me alone, but the woman
they were to vindicate by their vile tactics, and even assailed the
child she bore in her bosom, by the most detestable and
intolerable of all detractions. They mortified and distressed my venerable
and venerated father, with whose name dishonor,
during a life of near eighty winters, has never been connected; a father
who received the portionless daughter of Gov.
McDowell as his own, and provided for her every comfort. They disgusted
and dismayed my excellent and irreproachable
sisters in their unobtrusive spheres of respectable life; my brother,
my nephews, my nieces; a large family to whom till then, I
had been familiar only as a man worthy of that which it had been always
my ambition to gain, their esteem and affection. They
tried to blast the public and private hopes of one not unambitious
of, or unknown to public distinctions, or indifferent to
individual esteem. They tried to make a monster of me, by that common
rule of aggressors to anticipate attack by being
assailants; and have hoped possibly that false pride would forbid me
to expose them and defend myself....
* A complete copy of the Statement of Francis Thomas is available at
the Maryland State Archives, Special Collections
[Thomas Collection] MSA SC 2737.
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|