-But perhaps there was still a greater crime in this affair. I
allude to the crime of having, after the account of his frailty had
taken wind through the whole country, ventured to defend it, or rather
to place it in such a light as might enable the public to place it to
the account of mere animal exhaustion, independent of the real
cause. And I have reason to know, that to a very enlarged extent I
succeeded--for many persons having heard of the circumstance in its
worse and most offensive sense, actually came to my office--'

"'Yes, after you had made it public, as far as you could.'

"'--To my office, to inquire into it. And I assure you all, gentlemen,
that from motives at once of the Christian and the Orangeman, I merely
informed them that the gentleman had certainly had, about the time
specified, a very severe fit--I did not add of intoxication--oh the
contrary, I charitably stopped there, and now it would appear that this
forbearance on my part is another crime. But even that is not all. The
occasion which called forth the paragraph in the paper which I have
honor to conduct, was one which I shall just allude to. Some time ago
there was inserted in the True Blue a short article headed 'Susanna and
the Elder,' in which certain vague and idle reports, fabricated by some
person who bears enmity to a most respectable Christian gentleman, who
honors us this moment with his presence--'

"Solomon here approached him, and grasping his hand, exclaimed--

"'Thank you, my dear brother Cantwell--thank you a hundred times;
yours is the part of a true Christian; so go on, I entreat you--here is
nothing to be ashamed of--I know it is good to be tried.'

"'Now it was really the charity contained in the article from the True
Blue that struck me so forcibly--for it not only breathed the scandal so
gently, as that it would scarcely stain a mirror--and it did not stain
the mirror against which the report was directed--but it placed it as
it were, before his eyes, that he might not be maligned without his
knowledge, on taking steps to triumph over it, which our friend did--and
great was his triumph and meekly was it borne on the occasion. With
respect to my political creed, gentlemen, you all know it is my boast
that I belong to no party. I advocate broad and general principles; and
the more comprehensive they are, so does my love of kind take a wider
range. I am a patriot, that is my boast--a moderate man--an educated
man; I am,