hy did he recommend
me so highly in his letter of April 7th, and why has he not contradicted
me before this? The reverend gentleman says, that he did not wish to
injure me, and so addressed me a private note. If I could be so base as
to put forth to the world such falsehoods as he accuses me of, in regard
to a fellow-being, so soon to be launched into eternity, no fear of
injury to me can excuse the gentleman for his not exposing me
immediately to public scorn and detestation.

When at Auburn, after my visits to the cell, I spoke several times, in
the presence of Mr. Morrill, and other gentlemen, of Wyatt's confessions
to me; and yet Mr. Morrill, though present, never disputed one relation.
I also lectured some fifty times, within fifty miles of Auburn, and, in
nearly all, gave the same statements which he now contradicts. Why has
not Mr. Morrill published, together with his contradiction, my reply to
his note of July 10th? If he had, the community would have seen my
reasons for not retracting my former statements.

I am truly sorry to have any difficulty with the reverend gentleman, on
this subject or any other, but my duty in regard to this malicious
slander, (the motives of which I am unable to fathom,) compels me to
reply, and for no other purpose than to satisfy the community, that I
could have no personal object in view, in casting a stigma upon the
character of this unfortunate convict, by any statement he made to me,
for I certainly could not be benefited in any manner by publishing
falsehoods in relation to him.

I repeat again to the world, and ever will, that the unfortunate Wyatt
did to me confess all I stated he did, and much more, which it is
impossible for me to remember. If he stated falsehoods to me, I am not
responsible. He told me that he was one of _four_ that had received a
thousand lashes at Vicksburg, in July, 1835; and I knew a young man, by
the name of Henry North, to be about Vicksburg, and to be in the
employment of North, the gambler, who was hung at Vicksburg, by the
_lynchers_, in July, 1835. Henry, though of the same name, was not
related to the other, as I understood. When I went to the south in the
fall of 1835, I inquired about the gamblers of Vicksburg, and was told
that Henry North, alias Wyatt, or Newell, was, with four others,
whipped, tarred and feathered, hands bound, and set afloat, and the
supposition was that he, and the others with him, existed no more. When
Wyatt told me h