, that I have not seen your article, nor do I know a
word it contains, and it is due to myself to say that I knew
nothing of the article in the Democrat assailing you, till I
saw it in print some hundred of miles from home, where I have
not yet arrived after an absence of nearly two months. On the
subject of dues, I may add that it is due to the public that
the name of the deceiver be given them. I of course suppose him
to be a man of great personal courage, ready to assume all his
own responsibilities. In conclusion, permit me to say, that any
effort on your part to aid in concealing the hand that uses the
dagger in the dark, will detract largely from the estimate I
have placed upon your character, as a man without hesitation or
fear, when the claims of justice are presented. My address is
Fincastle, Botetourt Co., Va., and I am very respectfully,

S. D. HOPKINS.

* * * * *

KNOXVILLE, May 21st, 1856.

REV. S. D. HOPKINS:

SIR--Through the weakness, mismanagement, and culpable
remissness of the contemptible Jesuit now at the head of the
Post Office Department, and his numerous lackeys--all of whom
you sustain in their politics--a letter written by you one month
ago was received a few days since, while I was absent at a Know
Nothing Convention, aiding my political brethren in placing
before the people of this Congressional District an electoral
candidate, to aid in the great Christian and patriotic work of
overthrowing the corrupt, profligate, unprincipled, Foreign
Catholic Bogus Democratic party, of which _you_ are a member,
and in the service of which you are an editor! But my delay in
replying to your letter shall be atoned for in the _length_ and
_plainness_ of my reply.

It is true, sir, that I published an editorial in my paper, of
some severity against you; but the article was in _reply_ to a
low, cowardly, and abusive editorial against me in the
"Fincastle Democrat," of which you are the editor. And "you will
allow me to say, sir," that at the time this attack was made
upon me in _your_ paper, I never had said a word about you or
your paper in my life, either "good, bad, or indifferent;" and
"if through the influence of another you have inflicted a wound
upon one that never harme