uld not
make either him or myself known without his consent, binds me as with links
of iron. Col. ---- is slowly recovering from the paralytic affection with
which he was seized on the 20th of this month; and let me assure you, most
sacredly and solemnly, that as soon as his health is sufficiently restored
to allow a conversation of any length to be had with him, I will not fail
to convince him of the propriety--of the _necessity_--of permitting me to
call upon you, or invite you to his residence, where, preliminary to my
taking the proper steps to convince the public of their authenticity, I may
exhibit to you all the writings which have been so exultingly
prounounced[TN] to be "audacious forgeries."

You do me but justice, when you say, that "a careful perusal of the letters
of Valley Forge, confirms the belief, that he is neither an impostor nor a
forger of letters." Why should I be? What motive could induce any rational
being to originate a _fabrication_ so sure to be detected? You will find,
ere very long, that I have given you nothing but the truth. Only _one_
liberty did I venture to take with any of the correspondence--that was from
considerations of delicacy, which I now believe to have been _fastidious_,
and to which, at the time, I reluctantly yielded. In Gen. Smith's letter to
Col. ----, dated Oct. 2d, 1832, I substituted a _blank_ for the name of
_Mrs. Ferguson_," which Gen. Smith gives as that of the lady from whom was
taken the letter of Governor Jonstone to Gen. Reed. This, the _only_
alteration I ever made, you must allow, was a pardonable error.

"Truth is mighty and must prevail;" and in this case, to the joy of your
friends, and the consternation of your enemies, it shall be signally
exemplified. _For the present_, let me entreat you to rest satisfied with
my assurances; assurances which will soon be most thoroughly redeemed; and
that you will desist from your endeavor to discover who I am--efforts which
can give you but vain trouble, which _must_ prove fruitless; for the
precautions which I have adopted for the preservation of my _incognito_, it
is impossible to overcome.

Very truly, &c.,
VALLEY FORGE.

October 29th, 1842.

From the Evening Journal, October 31st.

_"Valley Forge" and General Joseph Reed--Is there a Sepulchral Sanctuary
for Public Men?--The success of the American Revolution--