‘May 4, 1863. }
“‘Mr. A. C. Stewart, Provost-Marshal, Danville, Mo.:
“‘Dear Sir: Yours of the 26th April is to hand, has been read and contents noted. And in reply let me say, I regret that you considered my letter in its whole tenor ‘invidious, offensive and insulting,’ notwithstanding my protest against such a construction. I knew the task I had undertaken was difficult, for there seems to be something about official position which is always more or less impatient of contradiction. And hence it was reasonable to conclude that this is true of military officers, who feel that it is theirs to command and for others to obey or submit, and not to reason or question. The difficulty was to so employ language as to convey some idea of my righteous indignation at the injustice of my treatment, and which would at the same time be respectful and courteous toward those in authority. And I question very much whether you yourself, in my circumstances, would, if you could, have done better. I was, with only a few days’ notice, forced away from the fellowship and pastoral oversight of hundreds of beloved brethren; from a most dependent and afflicted family; from my only means of their support; from the graves of my kindred, and every thing of earth that was dear; was denied the privilege of going by St. Louis, where I might have reached the ears of power and have gained a revocation of my order of banishment; with limited means, was compelled to travel a circuitous and expensive route to my place of exile; was denied the privilege of living in the loyal State of Illinois, where I had kindred, and it would have cost me nothing; was denied the sympathy of friends who would have helped me financially, but were afraid; was sent into a land of strangers, under Government censure, where, without sympathy, if without money, a man had better be dead; was not allowed to know the charges against me, who were my accusers, or even the semblance of a trial, though I had sought one of Gen. Merrill, of Gen. Curtis, of Gen. Halleck, of Gov. Gamble, of Attorney-General Bates, of Secretary Stanton and of President Lincoln, and had done this, directly and indirectly, through men of commanding influence, whose loyalty was above suspicion, and all this without success; felt, yea knew, that I was innocent; that there could be no truthful evidence of my being guilty of any crime; knew that I was suffering all this to gratify the malignity of secret enemies who had deceived the military commander and secured my banishment; enemies who, like the midnight assassin, did their work and then slunk away to gloat over the misery they had caused; felt satisfied that I was thus persecuted for an ecclesiastical and not for a political reason; was sure the Government could not be benefited by my persecution nor injured by my return to my family; and, finally, became thoroughly convinced that the influence that controlled the action of those who had the power to release me from the binding force of this order, or to keep me in exile, was in or near Danville; and, in a word, was satisfied that I had found out the locality of the authors of my trouble and why they persecuted me, but the identical names of my persecutors I did not know; and hence, in view of the foregoing considerations, I wrote you in the way I did. Now, interpret my letter in the light of my circumstances, and imagine yourself in my condition, and you will be able to ‘comprehend it,’ and to excuse anything that may seem ‘discourteous or insulting,’ especially when I assure you nothing of the kind was intended. You have my thanks for your prompt and manly reply to my letter. There are times when I would rather a man would abuse me a little than not answer me at all, and this is one of those times. You are the only officer who had the condescension, kindness, humanity, or whatever else you may please to call it, to answer a single one of my numerous appeals for deliverance from oppression, or for instruction as to where or how I might obtain it. To your praise be this spoken. It affords me much pleasure, also, to learn from yourself that you had no hand in securing my banishment, or knowledge of it until after it occurred. I wish I could think the same of every other citizen of Danville.
“And now that, in accordance with your wish, I am addressing you as a private citizen, may I ask, and confidently expect, that you will give me the names of my accusers, and the nature of their accusations against me, if there are any, together with the names of those loyal men whose sworn testimony was sent to Gen. McKean in regard to the ‘propriety’ of allowing me to come home, and the substance of what each one said? As that is the nearest a trial of anything else I have had, should not the accused be allowed to know his accusers, the names of the witnesses and the nature of their testimony against him? You reprehend me very severely for insinuating that you have any ‘direct control of my case.’ Well, I did not suppose you had authority to revoke the order of banishment; but I did suppose, and do still suppose, that you and your friends of that vicinity can influence Gen. McKean to revoke the order or not, just as you wish; and that you have control of my case in that way. And hence it is that I am so thankful to you, and so much encouraged by your kind offer to use your influence with the commanding officer to set aside this order and permit me to return home. And I am sure if you do promptly and vigorously exert your influence in that direction you are certain of success.
“Among your items of advice you say, ‘Give every assurance that your lips will be sealed in future as to the utterance of treason, directly or indirectly.’ Now, as this is, to my mind, an intimation that some one, or all three of us, are charged with having been guilty of treasonable utterances, and hence are required to give assurance that we will do so no more, I wish to say for myself that, if such be the intimation, I deny the allegation in toto; for I have neither uttered nor acted treason, nor do I expect to do either in future. And if I am permitted to return, and you can protect me from the tongue of slander, and the secret enemies that with consummate mendacity hound my steps and torture and misrepresent my language and conduct, you will hear nothing of treason, either in utterance or action. But, if that can not be done—if the tongue of slander and falsehood against me can not be silenced in any other way—then give a fair trial, and make these secret liars, who whisper falsehoods into official ears against those they hate, ‘face the music,’ and I will vindicate my innocence. Upon that subject I can make no further promises. A mere charge of treason, you know, is no evidence of guilt. The immaculate Son of Man was accused of rebellion, sedition and treason, with blasphemy, and with being the agent of the prince of devils! Of Innocence itself they said, ‘He is not fit to live; away with him! crucify him! crucify him!’ And ‘If they have done these things in the green tree, what will they not do in the dry?’ And the same divine authority has said, ‘If any man will live godly in Christ Jesus, he must suffer persecution,’ and I have made my calculations accordingly. As to your other suggestions, I wish to say that I will herewith transmit to Gen. McKean, through you, a request, or petition, for the revocation of this order in my case, accompanied with a few of the reasons why I make it, which I will thank you to send to him, if you please, together with such remarks and recommendations as you may think proper to make. Please let me hear from you at an early day, and much oblige,
“‘Most respectfully,
“‘B. H. Spencer.’
“The petition was sent to General McKean, through the Provost-Marshal of Montgomery county, Mo., together with the best appeal that he could make in our favor. But the only notice he seems to have given it was to treat it with silent contempt.
“The following is a copy of that petition:
“‘Ashby’s Mills, Ind., May 7, 1863.