Know-Nothing_, or
sympathized with the Order! The authorities of the Church, after
a patient hearing of the whole case, pro and con, acquitted the
young man. You followed him up to the Annual Conference, as the
representative of and attorney for Sag Nichtism. The Conference
acquitted the young preacher again, and sent him to an
enlightened circuit in Maryland. This so offended you, and your
patriotic, not to say _pious_ associates, that, for the Church's
good, they resigned their stewardship in the Church, and were
so offended at the course of the Presiding Elder, _Rev. M.
Goheen_, than whom there is not a more modest, unassuming,
conservative Christian gentleman in the Valley of Virginia,
that, at a recent Quarterly Meeting there, they refused to
attend church, or to hear him preach. This is just the spirit
that actuates your party, everywhere.

You demand of me the name or names of such person or persons as
have given me information in reference to you. Reconsider this
demand, if you please, and ask yourself if, under all the
circumstances, it is not a cool piece of impudence. I have
published nothing about you upon the authority of others, but
upon my own authority and responsibility. You _suspect_ some of
your neighbors for writing to me, and hence you make this
demand. It is true, I have friends in Fincastle, and some of
these write to me, and when I publish any thing about you, or
any one of your associates, and give these friends of mine as
authority, I will give you their names, if called upon to do so;
or I will assume the responsibility myself. What I have said in
reply to the wicked, slanderous, and cowardly assault upon me,
in the dirty paper controlled by you, I have said upon my own
responsibilities, as a man, and as a member of the same Church
to which you belong; and whether my "peace as a citizen" is
preserved or destroyed, I am not the man to be intimidated or
driven from my position. My failure to give you the names of any
citizens of your vicinity, who may have written me private
letters, relating to your war upon young Hall, the Circuit
Preacher, "will detract largely from the estimate you have
placed upon my character." This I am sorry to hear, as I do not
wish to fall below the "estimate" placed upon my character in
the two issues of your paper,