Still despairing of any thing like a defence upon this ground, the Citizen at length, p. 24, dismisses his whole train of statements, certificates and letters, & undertakes very learnedly and elaborately to refine upon the distinction; and insists that if a man expresses his personal wish to resign, it is to all intents and purposes a resignation, and that no other was ever heard of; as if it was impossible to consult the opinions of others, and make a general resignation depend upon their consent. All that it seems necessary in that case, is for the McBain meeting to resolve to accept what they thus are pleased to call a resignation, and nominate another candidate. And this it seems accords with the sense of all the world on the subject, both federal and republican. Thus the world are at length after a lapse of ages, furnished with an easy recipe for a resignation—a sort of panacea to correct all the sores of the body politic and produce a "speedy composure of the public mind" "Tereatis Risum Amici;" and call no one a political quack playing off his whimsical nostrums upon the people, whose mental repose lies so near his heart. If the meeting are told that they shall be responsible if they act on a declaration thus limited, keep it out of view as much as possible, or say as the citizen does, p. 40, that it was only something like that or out of season, or some such thing. If a committee of three are chosen to publish the proceedings and two of them write a farrago of nonsense which puts the whole together by the ears, in order to decide the quarrel and "speedily compose the public mind," let them raffle upon the question, and to see that every thing is fair, appoint the First Judge to hold the hat. Ancient history tells us of more important controversies than this, decided in the same way;
Old Hector was a wary chap,
At pitch and chuck and hustle-cap,
An old Scotch bonnet quickly takes,
In which he three brass farthings shakes;
Then turn'd his head without deceit,
To shew them that he scorn'd to cheat;
And cries aloud, here goes, my boy,
'Tis heads for Greece and tails for Troy;
Then turns the cap: great Troy prevails,
Two farthings out of three were tails.
But it is time to lift the curtain, and attend more minutely to the chief jugglers who figure behind it. The Sheriff and others, who sign the McBain certificate, alledge that Mr. Cowen (according to their construction) not only resigned his nomination but did so without any previous request (as they perceived) It would seem from this, that these men were kept as a sort of puppets to dance in accordance with the wires which actuated them, from behind the scene; being thus, according to their own account, strangers to the pressing request made to Mr. Cowen, and the arguments by which it was enforced. They are excluded the main performance and reserved for the farce—probably for the wisest of reasons, as there are certain important parts which would be ruined in vulgar hands. It is time that these men should perceive, if they have not yet learned one important fact among others, which their famous masters, Thompson and Child, have thus hypocritically concealed throughout. For this purpose I give the following extract of a letter from Judge Child, written on the subject of that meeting, the day after it took place, dated at Greenfield, April 19, 1815:
"We accordingly met, and had a free candid and friendly consultation with Mr. Cowen; and when he came to hear the communication from Esquire Cowles, Ketchum and Gardner, on the subject of Mr. Young's conduct and usefulness in the Legislature;—and taking into consideration all the circumstances, he cheerfully declared that, in his judgement, it was best for him to resign being a candidate; and use his influence for the election of Mr. Young;—but that he really desired an opportunity of consulting those friends who had exerted themselves to procure his nomination, that were not present. It was stated to him that they lived or at least some of them, at such a distance, that it would be very difficult to give seasonable information to the county of his resignation in favor of Mr Young, should it be put bye till Thursday or Friday as he requested;—and that the same reasons[11] which convinced him that it would be proper for him to resign, would satisfy them on the subject. Mr. Cowen still tho't it would be the best way to proceed and the most gratifying to his feelings, to take time to consult his friends."
Thus you see Mr. Cowen was requested to resign, and the arguments in favor of that resignation founded upon the famous certificate, dated Albany, April 17, 1815, published Ante, page 4—a statement jesuitically calculated to shew that the zeal of his friends had, by perverting the conversation of Ketchum &c. aided in procuring his nomination. And when he expresses a desire to consult his friends; an answer is ready, emanating from the same false and deceptive source. Thus are the most shameful arts employed to destroy his confidence in those friends, and induce in him a reluctance under all the circumstances (as the first judge expresses it) against being a candidate—You thus see their rotten certificate made the foundation for the rise—progress and result of that meeting. Thus does the charge of DUPLICITY, FRAUD and FALSEHOOD recoil upon the heads of those arch-certifiers, or the men employed in obtaining and giving currency to their shameful communication.
It then in fact ceases to be a question what was said or done by that meeting, or any member of it. For according to every principle of reasoning, divine or human; if the whole was grounded on fraud, the whole was a nullity, and possessed no moral force. "If" says the book, "Mr. Cowen's nomination was procured by fraud, it cannot be called a nomination; and may be departed from with impunity." It turning out on investigation, that his nomination was a perfectly fair one, and his pretended resignation founded on the grossest duplicity;—whether it was conditional or absolute, whether it was personal or general, it is void, and unworthy the name of a resignation. Eternal justice disavows it; Political justice disowns it; and common sense condemns the perversion. The nomination of Mr. Young, by a meeting thus packed for the purpose, by a few of his friends, was not only void for that reason, but it had its origin in the same duplicity, and was therefore equally void with every thing founded upon it.
Were Young's colleagues correctly informed, as to the manner their conversations were spoken of? or were they deceived by Kasson and Thompson when they called for their certificates at Albany? If the latter, they had near one year before giving their second certificate, to correct the error. Why have they always shrunk from investigation? Why in their second certificate, contradict the first? Why after having near a year to prepare it, does their second certificate contradict itself? As they now stand, they present a more shocking caricature of folly and inconsistency, than ever figured before the public. They have burst the bands of political faith—They have melted the cement of affection, and driven to a returnless distance, the best and dearest of friends. No man knew what to say or think of what they said or certified—Individual ruin is threatened, and the destruction of a free press aimed at; while in the political atmosphere all is uproar, disorder and confusion.
—Alas.—"That men,
Clothed with a little brief authority,
Should play such antic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep!"
With these men however I have now done—But let their Pander beware; let him pause and reflect, ere it be too late—"Already are the sluices of public indignation opened upon him—Already is he drifted along on the surface of the stream, the object of CONTAGION and ABOMINATION"—AN ELECTOR. MAY 1816.