The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom does he
consider disinterested? None can be more so than those who have already
testified against him. No one of them had the least interest on earth,
so far as I can learn, to injure him. True, he says they had conspired
against him; but if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were introduced
against him, he would make the same charge of conspiracy. And now I put
the question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin
Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. Logan, all
sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly proud of them, would
deliberately perjure themselves, without any motive whatever, except to
injure a man's election; and that, too, a man who had been a candidate,
time out of mind, and yet who had never been elected to any office?
Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is surpassing.
He brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber,
with whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is some black or
mulatto boy, from his being kept in the kitchen, to prove his points; but
when such a man as Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran against
Gen.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236