"I certify, that some time in the month of March 1815, I went to Albany on business, and called at the house where the members of this county resided; found Messrs. Gardner, Ketcham and Cowles, and made my business known. Mr. Cowles said he would call and see me at my lodgings. Accordingly he did; told me it was not according to his wish, that what I had to offer in the business could not be complied with. I then asked where Mr. Young quartered? He said he would tell me; on the way, Mr. Cowles said there had been a coldness between the Speaker of the House, and the members from this County, since he became speaker and expected to be Secretary of State, and on that account declined going.—JONATHAN KELLOGG. Northumberland, April 8th 1816."
"I hereby solemnly certify, that some time in the month of February, 1815, (and I believe in the early part of it,) in a conversation Col. John Prior had with me just after his return from Albany, on the subject of candidates for the then approaching election; he the said Prior remarked, that 'Mr. Young was not so popular as he had been.' On my asking him why, he replied, 'for his ill treatment to his colleagues, having grown haughty, &c.' This I understood him to have received directly from the said members, Messrs. Gardner, Cowles and Ketcham. In the spring of the same year, after Messrs. Palmer and Bunce had made known similar complaints, that the said three members had made to them of Young's treatment, I had another conversation with the said Prior on the subject, in which he the said Prior intimated, 'he did not believe the said members had told the said Palmer and Bunce what they had pretended.' I then asked him, if the members were not as likely to tell them of it, as himself, and repeated to the said Prior what he had told me in the winter, of the members having made the same complaint to him, which the said Prior did not pretend to deny as having heard from the members, nor having told me the same.—JOSEPH MITCHEL. Dated, Greenfield, March 15, 1815."
"I hereby certify, that in the early part of the winter past, I had a conversation with Isaac Myers of Stillwater, relative to the conduct of Richard Ketcham, late a member of the Legislature; when he the said Myers told me that he knew the said Ketcham had contradicted himself, relative to what he had said of Mr. Young; that previous to the McBain meeting, Ketcham had denied to him, ever saying any thing against Young, or complaining of his treatment; but that afterwards he had owned to several in his presence, that he had spoken against Young, &c.—ASA B. JEWEL. Saratoga, March 25th 1816."
Other affidavits and statements might be produced to the same effect but twelve or fourteen different conversations, at different times, and, in presence of different men are already proved upon them, all importing explicitly that Mr. Young had ill-treated or neglected them—and shewing a desire on their part that Mr. Young should not be sent to the Legislature the ensuing year. If then Mr. Young had an undoubted right to a seat in the legislature, which would perhaps be questionable upon republican ground, and was deprived of that right by "management and fraud," with whom did this system of corruption commence! and to whose account ought it to be placed? To that of his colleagues, or other men whom their misstatements and falsehoods had seduced? It may however, be very well to enquire whether these declarations were ever made use of to any purpose, and whether Mr. Young must have succeeded in his nomination, had these free and unreserved conversations of his colleagues, been kept entirely out of view; whether Palmer and Bunce, were alone in singling out the candidate who was nominated, or whether some other person or persons had not tho't of him even before Palmer and Bunce went to Albany.
Among the names which ornament the pages of "The Citizen," I observe that of a recent convert to the doctrine of "Falsehood, Fraud & Co" viz: William Stillwell, late a Judge, and now Clerk of this county. This political Proteus, together with a number of his, friends was I believe, among the first to start Mr. Cowen as a candidate, before the county convention, and was from time to time very importunate with him, to consent that his name should be made use of for this purpose. From the early part of February 1815, until he had got the Clerk's office, be appears to have been Mr. Cowen's indefatigable supporter. At the McBain meeting however, he was as active and diligent to get rid of that nomination, as he had before been to effect it. Thomas Palmer, Esq. the secretary of that meeting, together with. Judge Stillwell, were chosen two of the committee to draw up the proceedings, and were unquestionably in all respects the proper organ for that purpose. Sensible of this, Judge Stillwell, the evening after the meeting, invited Mr. Palmer to his house, where they deliberately, and without any disagreement drew up the statement, published p. 24 and 25, of their pamphlet. They jointly reviewed this statement the next morning—agreed in its correctness, and ordered it to be printed. Shortly after, without the knowledge of Mr. Palmer or Mr. Cowen, Stillwell secretly withdraws this statement from the printing office, and adopts and signs another drawn up by Mr. Thompson, differing in many respects from the first. This last statement the secretary refused to sign, and his name was inserted as you will see by the statement itself, p. 16, without his knowledge or authority. Having thus boxed the compass and settled down upon point no point, it is not surprising that when Stillwell lends his name to "The Citizen" and appears in his Book, as the flaming advocate for "fair and open conduct," and the zealous detector of "fraud and duplicity," that he should hypocritically skulk behind the scene, and keep himself as much out of view as possible, in the strange and opposite parts which he had acted. The singular course which this man (Stillwell) had pursued both in and out of "the book," and especially his attempt to shew that "Mr. Cowen's nomination was procured by fraud, &c." drew the following sentiments from Doctor Clark, (who was one of the convention which nominated Mr. Cowen) expressed in a letter to Thomas Palmer, Esq.—
"Moreau, March 12th 1816.
Dear Sir,
Having seen and examined a publication signed "A Citizen," purporting to be an apology and justification of the gentlemen who composed the McBain meeting. In that publication I observe a studied and systematic attempt to fix on you and Mr. Bunce, the blame of having started Esek Cowen Esq. as a candidate for assembly, and of having procured his nomination by fraud and intrigue. In consequence of seeing Wm. Stillwell's name affixed to the proceedings of that meeting, and being well informed that the said Stillwell hath gone great length to justify the conduct of the said meeting, in making void the nomination made by the county convention, I feel myself constrained by a sense of justice to declare, that some time on or about the 11th day of February 1815, being in company with Esek Cowen, at the house of Wm. Stillwell Esq., he the said Stillwell did then and there introduce the subject of the then next election, by saying, that himself and a number of others had conversed on the subject, and agreed that Mr. Cowen ought to be a candidate—That Mr. Cowen made objections, and mentioned to him the names of several other gentlemen as being proper candidates in preference to himself; to which Mr. Stillwell objected, and urged Mr. Cowen with apparent zeal to suffer his name to be made use of as a candidate. Sir, you are at liberty to make such use of the above statement of facts, as in your judgment you shall think proper.
Yours, Respectfully, B.J. Clark.
Hon. T. Palmer Esq."