made against him; he visited there upon the
invitation of the American party, to address a Mass Meeting. I waited
upon Maj. Donelson, upon his arrival, and found him at the house of
Doct. Curry. I told the Major that I was tired of having questions of
veracity between me and Governors and Ex-Governors of Tennessee, and
that I desired that others should state to him what had been said by the
Governor. Accordingly, different gentlemen, citizens of character,
informed him that they were in the crowd and heard Johnson, and that he
did say all that was attributed to him, both in the letter he had
received from me, and in the two Knoxville papers. Consequently, when
Maj. Donelson made his speech next day, he denounced the Governor as a
miserable calumniator, and refuted his villainous charges, in a manner
becoming the occasion, and with a frankness which carried with it a
conviction of its truth, and gave satisfaction to his numerous friends.

And now, gentlemen, I take occasion to state, that there is no longer an
adjourned question of veracity between me and Johnson and Eastman. The
issue is between Johnson and Eastman, on the one hand, and various
respectable gentlemen of Knoxville, on the other hand. Either the
Governor and his man Friday have basely lied, or a number of the
citizens of Knoxville and vicinity, have testified to what is false. I
assert, once more, that the Governor and his dirty Editor have lied out
of the villainous abuse the former heaped upon better men than himself.
And if their friends are willing to see them remain under the charge,
the American party are satisfied with the settlement of the question.

Fellow-citizens, while I am on the stand, I will notice some other
points personal to myself. And before I enter upon these, I will call
your attention to the wholesale abuse of the Governor, of some
thirty-five or forty thousand voters in Tennessee. In his Murfreesboro'
speech, he asserted that "_the Devil, his Satanic Majesty, presides over
all the secret conclaves_" held by the Know Nothings, and that "_they
are the allies of the Prince of Darkness_." I quote from his printed
speeches from memory, but it will be found that I quote correctly. In
that same speech, he asserts that all Know Nothings are "_bound by
terrible oaths to fix and carry a lie in their mouths_!" In his
Manchester speech, I believe it was, he called all members of the new
party "_Hyenas_," and "_huge reptiles, upon whose neck th