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[187] the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Charitably believing that I had been unwittingly led into error, he would have corresponded with me on the subject, and demanded a public apology for the injury inflicted upon his character; and I would have promptly made that apology—yea, upon my bended knees. For I confidently assert, that no individual who knows me personally—not even the accused himself—believes that I was instigated by malice in the publication of my strictures. I make no other charge against him. If I have enemies, I forgive them—I am the enemy of no man. My memory can no more retain the impression of anger, hatred or revenge, than the ocean the track of its monsters.

The admonition of Ganganelli, that libels and satires make an impression only upon weak and badly organized heads, ought not to have been lost upon Mr. Todd—especially if his hands were clean and his heart white. Moreover, what if the times were hard, freights dull, and money scarce—was he in danger of starvation? And, if so, how much nobler would have been his conduct, if he had adopted the language of the martyred patriot of England—the great Algernon Sidney!— ‘I have ever had in my mind, that when God should cast me into such a condition as that I cannot save my life but by doing an indecent thing, he shows me the time has come wherein I should resign it; and when I cannot live in my own country but by such means as are worse than dying in it, I think he shows me I ought to keep myself out of it.’

Finally, you observe: ‘We cannot, in such comment as Mr. Garrison desires editors generally to make on his prosecution; and we cannot, in our real friendship to him, praise him for any act of rashness and indiscretion.’

I ask, deserve, and expect the praise of no individuals for my labors; because I am merely endeavoring to perform my duty —and, as I fall far short of that duty, therefore I cannot be meritorious. You misapprehend the nature of the comments that I requested editors to make upon my trial. It is my solemn belief, that a more flagrant infringement upon the liberty of the press than is presented in the decision of the Court, is hardly to be found in the record of libellous prosecutions in France or Great Britain. I was convicted upon an indictment which was utterly defective, and as innocent as blank paper—evidence failing to prove that I had printed or published, or had any agency in printing or publishing, or had written or caused to be written, or had even seen or known anything of, the obnoxious


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