wronged and
belied, like Dr. Follen--he ought to be defended,--but how? He was poor
and friendless, and the whole newspaper press of the country was either
against him, or wholly indifferent. Had he been on trial in a court of
justice, any lawyer would have defended him,--nay, for that matter, he
might have defended himself. But if he entered the field as a writer,
alone against a host, volumes would have to be written,--and who would
publish them,--who read them?

That I might bring the matter to issue at once, knowing well, and from
long experience, that, when people are accused through the newspaper
press of our country, they are always believed to be guilty until they
have _established their innocence_, I sent a communication to the
Portland Advertiser of October 15, 1839, with my name, charging upon Mr.
Henry McIlvaine and Colonel John Stille, Jr. all that I afterwards
repeated with more distinctness and solemnity in "The New World," for
which I was then writing (and from which I withdrew in consequence of
what I then regarded as unfairness toward General Bratish on the part of
my coadjutors, Messrs. Park Benjamin and Epes Sargent), and arraigning
both McIlvaine and Stille, as conspirators and libellers.

One day, while this controversy was raging, the General called upon me,
and begged me, for my own satisfaction, to inquire of Baron de
Mareschal, the Austrian Minister, respecting certain charges that had
just appeared against him. I consented, and immediately despatched the
following letter to the care of my friend, the Honorable George Evans,
our Representative in Congress, requesting him to see the Baron for me.

"_To_ HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL BARON DE MARESCHAL, _Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from his Majesty the
Emperor of Austria._

"The undersigned is led to apply to your Excellency in behalf
of a gentleman here, who has been assailed by a great variety
of newspaper slanders, most of which have been triumphantly
refuted. The gentleman referred to is known here, by his
passports and other credentials, as John Bratish Eliovich, late
a general in the service of her most Catholic Majesty, the
Queen of Spain, and is now an American citizen.

"He states--and he bids me trust confidently to the character
of your Excellency for an early reply--that in 1828 he was at
Rio Janeiro; that instead of 'running away,' as reported, with