swer. The first occasion
of my mentioning this matter publicly was this: soon after our return to
the city, in the year 1778, among the victims selected for public examples,
there was a young gentleman, with whom I had formed an intimacy in early
life. I considered him, as he was by many, (and his acquittal justified the
opinion,) as unjustly persecuted; but General Reed, who had resumed his
original profession, _voluntarily_ aided the prosecution, and with all the
force of declamation, labored to inflame his judges and jury against him.
It was then, recollecting how near he once appeared to the commission of
the same offence which he charged upon the other, or at least to a
defection from the cause, that my indignation broke out at the trial,
saying to those around me, that "_it argued the extremity of effrontery and
baseness, in one man to pursue another to death, for taking a step which
his own foot had been once raised to take_!"[H] This was anterior to his
elevation to the Presidency, and whilst his powers of doing mischief, were
he so inclined, were circumscribed by the narrowness of his sphere of
action; at such a time, could I think his loss of fame so essential to the
public good, or, if he will, to the purposes of party, as to be willing to
attempt it, at the expense of my private veracity, my honour and
conscience.

The inconsistency of such ostensible conduct, and the baseness of a
meditated defection, is not irreconcilable to those who have had
opportunities of knowing that he is not incapable of such vast extremes;
who have seen him at the bar of the assembly he himself disqualified by the
non-compliance with the test of laws, as since fully appears by a
publication signed Sidney, unblushingly attempt to set aside the famous
Chester election, upon the suggestion of its having been carried by
electors disqualified from the like circumstances.

It is thus I would have answered the question, why I have mentioned
publicly your meditated defection, and I trust that such provocation
merited those reflections which might otherwise have remained in my own
breast.

The objection to the force of my single testimony thus obviated, did no
other offer to corroborate it, I should not hesitate to submit it, under
such circumstances, to the judgment of the public, resting _their_
determination upon the credit of _my_ veracity against _yours_. Having
supported an unblemished character, I dare defy any person to produce a