f what belongs to their own honor and
dignity, and to the character and reputation of their village.

"I make this statement with regard to this matter of marriage, not
because I regard myself as amenable to the public to state to them
_whom_ or _when_ I shall marry, but that since so much has been said
upon the subject, I am quite willing they should know the truth as it
is. They are tyrants, and very little-hearted, and exceedingly
muddy-headed ones at that, who will presume to take a matter of this
kind out of the hands of the parties to whom it specifically belongs,
and who are acting law-abidingly and honorably in the premises.

"Here then is the story. Read it. A band of several hundred armed
men--armed, as I have been told, with an empty barrel spiked with
shingle nails, tar, feathers and a pole, came down upon a certain house
in Phillipsville, opposite Fulton, on Sabbath evening, a week ago, to
kill or drive out a single individual, conducting himself in a quiet,
peaceable manner, and that individual, too, in physical stature, one of
the smallest of men,--and in physical strength, proportionably inferior!
If this is not cowardice as well as villainy--and both of them
double-refined--then, I ask, what is cowardice, or what is villainy? The
malignity of the whole matter also is set in a clearer light, when it is
remembered that this same individual has never injured one of his
assailants, nor has it been charged upon him that in his life-time he
has ever inflicted the slightest wrong upon mortal man, but who has
striven to maintain an upright character through life, and to fight his
way for long years through scorn and contempt, to an honorable position
among men. Truly, this is a precious country! However, it is some
consolation to know that 'God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep
for ever.'

"A gentleman of Fulton writes an article on this subject, to the
'_Oswego Daily Times_,' of February the 3rd. The spirit of this
gentleman's article dishonors his heart. So filled is he with a
prejudice which an eminent Christian of this country has rightly
characterized, as a 'blasphemy against God,' and a 'quarrel with
Jehovah,' that he will not even deign to call me by name, to say nothing
of the title which has been legitimately accorded me, but designates me
as a 'colored man, &c.' The object of this writer in thus refusing to
accord to me so cheap and common a courtesy is apparent, and as
contemptible as app