7909. SLANDER, Anonymous.—
Your favor has been received * * * with the
tribute of respect due to a person, who, unurged
by motives of personal friendship or acquaintance,
and unaided by particular information,
will so far exercise his justice as to advert
to the proofs of approbation given to a
public character by his own State and the
United States, and weigh them in the scale
against the fatherless calumnies he hears uttered
against him. These public acts are known even to those who know nothing of my
private life, and surely are better evidence to a
mind disposed to truth, than slanders which
no man will affirm on his own knowledge, or
ever saw one who would.—
To Uriah M'Gregory. Washington ed. iv, 333.
(M.
1800)
