%4Z "I give theft Books |/<^fe ,g of vCoH*st- in, th S •mLE-MHlI^iaSinnr- Gift of Henry R. Wagner 195LSL SANTANGELO'S TRIAL LIBEL SAMUEL Mc ROBERTS, A SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM ILLINOIS. BEFORE THE COURT OF GENERAL SESSIONS, IN THE OITY OF NEW YORK. PART X. INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY MR. 0. de A. SANTANGELO TO HIS COUNSEL. NEW YORK. 1842. Gentlemen, However adverse the result of my approaching trial for libel may be, I shall solely look upon it as a subject for a few additional pages to the history of my strange adven tures. Yet I could not feel indifferent to the least judicial inci dent, which may not prove fully creditable to my personal honor. Society, it may be said with much truth, does not always condemn what a magistrate condemns, nor is public opinion always subservient to the decisions of juries or courts. It is not less certain, however, that men, uninformed of the true facts, might easily be led into error by wrong judicial sentences silently acquiesced to. Nature and reason, on the other hand, order me to defend myself. I shall never consent, therefore, to have my person confounded with the common mass of trembling victims to tyrannical power and brutal force. Let me defend my person, my name, my honor, and all my natural and civil rights, to the utmost. Must I suc cumb ? Well, I shall ; but not without being fully at peace with my own heart and mind. All that I aim at, is not to descend into the tomb a voluntary prey to inconsolable grief and dejecting opprobrium. I care but little for any other possible injury that human malice or folly can inflict on my septuagenary body or exhausted purse. Worldly misfortunes have no real terrors, in my opinion, whenever they can be •courageously faced by honesty and innocence. But, although I have long since been initiated in the myste ries of Themis, still, imperfectly acquainted with the English language, and in almost utter ignorance of the common law of this country, I could not, if abandoned to my own personal resources, flatter myself to give my defence all that vigor, of which I think it susceptible. These considerations have com pelled me, Gentlemen, to have recourse to your professional and efficient assistance : and the complicated nature of the case, suggests the propriety of giving you as complete a view of it as now lies within my reach. I would convince you of the justice of my cause before you attempt to convince the Court where the cause shall have to be debated- Above all, I would call your serious attention to the immense eventual disparity of forces existing between my assail ant and myself. The contest is literally between a naked human frame and a man clothed in full armouT, presenting al together an invulnerable, impenetrable mass of iron. In fact, what is a naturalized citizen against a native, a stranger to all political parties against a protected partizan, aprivate for saken individual against a Senator, shielded by the esprit de corps of numerous and powerful colleagues? You, learned jurists, cannot be ignorant of all those inscrutable and resistless influences, by which the human heart is secretly and sovereignly mastered, notwithstanding the most dazzling external appearances, or illusive protestations of rigorous im partiality and unshakeable uprightness. My only possible re source seems, therefore, to be an appeal to the national hon or of all parties, all corporations, all classes of native and adopted citizens, and, more especially, to the individual con scientious integrity of those to whose judgment the law con fides the decision of my case. I would likewise take the liberty of reminding you that juries — composed no doubt of excellent people, but common ly not much versed in dialectical and legal sciences — em brace, but too often, the opinion of those who speak the last to them, and that those who, amongst us, speak the last to them, are by no means the accused or his counsel, as in Con tinental Europe, but the Attorney General and the Judge of the court. This fact renders it advisable for the accused, or his counsel, to foresee in his defence, and defeat beforehand all objections which might possibly be made by those whose daring eloquence or imposing character could lead the jury to overlook the true merits of the defensive edifice. By the Code of Criminal Instruction of France, B. 11. Tit. 11. Art. 335, a reply to the defence is permitted both to the civil party and the Attorney General ; but " I' accuse ou son con. seil auront toujours la parole les derniers." This is a proper deference paid to the rights of man, and by such a procedure, the fate of the accused does not hang on a chance, which can so justly be compared to the drawing of a lottery. ^ I will now come to the point. I shall begin by submitting to you a faithful copy of all such documents as I have at mesent prcemanibus. and which seem necessary or useful to my defensive process. I shall expose, in continuation, for your better information, such ideas of the case as I have been able to conceive, and of which you will make, in your wisdom, the estimate you shall think proper. Such other proceedings as may take place before the Court of General Sessions, your professional action, the progress and final issue of the trial, to gether with all such suitable observations as it may elicit, will form the subject of the Second Part of this writing, and the whole will be recorded by the press. The extraordinary fact of this being, in the whole course of my life, and at my age of sev_ enty, my first .appearance before a criminal court in the char acter of an accused person (as not even for my political offences in Europe was I ever tried or heard in public) must be made known in all its extent. I owe this innocent and honest satis faction to my friends in both worlds, and to myself. Deign, Gentlemen, to accept the assurances of my respect ful regard. Your most humble servant. Santangelo. New York, November 1st. 1842. True copies of the original Documents, chronologically dis posed, as quoted in my "Instructions to my Counsel," touching my defence against the charge of " Libel" pre ferred by Senator Samuel Mc Roberts before the Court of General Sessions, evincing the futility of his action, and vindicating my slandered character. NO. 1. Washington, Feb. 15th. 1842 — Received from 0. de. A. Santangelo, Esq. two hundred dollars in full for his note due this day. Thos. P. Jones. This receipt was delivered on the 18th Feb., 1842, by D r. T. P. Jones, who had lent Mr. O. de A. Santangelo the sum of two hundred dollars for the term of four months, for which he received through me the in terest of forty dollars, at five per cent, per month, besides a bonus of five dollars — in all, forty-five dollars. Eugene Plunkett. NO. 2. I hereby certify that on the 28th day of February 1842, 1 was inform ed by Messrs. Robert Dyer & Co. Auctioneers, of the City of Washing ton, that they had made sales of Mexican Scrip at public auction, as fol lows : One Certificate for $500, sold to the Hon. James A. Pearce, of Mary land, at 49 cents on the dollar — making the amount of $245,00. One Certificate for $500, sold to the Hon. Samuel Mc Roberts, of Il linois, at 48 cents on the dollar, making the amount of $240,00. Both these Certificates belonged to the deceased Abraham Miller, and were sold by Mr. Rives, Editor of the Globe, executor of said Miller. Eugene Plunkett. NO. 3. I have bought of Mr. O. de A. Santangelo, a certificate issued under the Mexican Convention, No. 1159, dated 26th of March 1842, signed by T. L. Smith, for two hundred dollars— but I agree that if he pays me fifty dollars within two months from this date, with interest at six per cent, per annum, that I will transfer him said certificate. April 6th, 1842. Saml. Mc. Roberts. i:ro. 4. I have bought of Mr. Santangelo a, Certificate issued under the trea ty with Mexico, dated 26th March 1842, for five hundred dollars, signed by T. L. Smith. If Mr. Santangelo pays me one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and interest, by the 6th of June next, I will transfer him said certificate. April 15, 1842. Saml. Mc Roberts. NO. 5. I have purchased of 0. de A. Santangelo, a certificate issued- under the Mexican Treaty, being No. 1121, dated March 26th, 1842, for the sum of one thousand dollars, sigpedby T. L. Smith. If Mr. Santangelo pays me the sum of two hundred and fifty-three dollars and fifty cents, on or before the sixth of June 1842, with interest at the rate of six per eent per annum, I will sell and transfer him said certificate. April S3, 1842. Saml. Mc Roberts. NO. 6. If Mt Santangelo has two notes of five hundred, they would be more convenient than one of a thousand. I am willing to purchase five hundred dollars this evening, at 25 cents to the dollar as before. (This note was received on the morning of the 28th of April, 1842, from Senator Mc Roberts.) NO. 7. I have bought of 0. de A. Santangelo, a certificate issued under the treaty with Mexico, No. 1158, dated March 26th, 1842, and signed by T. L. Smith, for the sum of five hundred dollars. If Mr. Santangelo pays me one hundred and tweny-five dollars with interest, at the rate of six per cent per annum, on or before the 6th of June, 1842, 1 will sell and transfer to him said certificate. April 28th, 1842. Saml. Mc Roberts. NO. 8. T. P. Jones presents his respectful compliments to Mrs. de Santangelo, and with real regret informs her that a letter just received from New York, calling for an immediate payment of $500 will prevent him from making the proposed loan on the 1st of the month. T. P. J. gives the earliest notice of this in his power, and hopes that the disappointment may not be attended by any serious inconvenience. Washington, May 26th, 1842. NO. 9r Copy— Washington, May 26th, 1842.— Dr. T. P. Jbnes-^Sirrs-r Relying on your positive promises, the promises of a gentleman, I shall- indubitably lose $1650. Your notice of this morning comes much too late for me to hope for a remedy. You assured my wife and Mr. Plun kett, several days ago, *that you already had the greatest part of the money ready for the loan. The conditions were settled, and I confident ly trusted on their fulfilment ; but it seems that Mr. Mc Roberts is more fortunate than myself, and that I must be, as ever, the victim of untoWK ard circumstances. This note is only an attempt to recall you to a sen timent of honor ; if useless, I shall have to endure this new stroke of fate without repining : it will add a page to the volume of my misfor tunes. — Respectfully, your obt. servant — Santangelo.^- I certify that the above is a true copy of the letter handed to Mr: T. B. Jones, this day— Washington, May 26th, 1842. Eugene Plunkett. NO. 10. Copy— Washington, May 26th, 1842.— Dr. T. P.. Jones— SW- My note of this morning, in answer to yours of the same da,te, handed'jft. Sou by my wife in company with Mr. Plunkett, has produced no effect. To satisfactory apology has been made on your part. Was the " imme diate payment of $500," which you pretend to have been called upon for, from New York, due or not ? If it was in virtue of previous en gagements, of which you could not be ignorant, you' ought not to have made any engagement with me, conscious of your inability to comply with it. If it was" not, but is only a request of a recent date, you ought to have declined it for want of other means to enable you to keep yonr word to me. But you imagined you were dealing with a silly peasant just come from the country, wholly unacquainted with the in trigues of a town usurer. You have wilfully and dishonorably broken a contract, thus causing! me a sure loss of $1650 — Must I now engage a contest with a man des* titute of honor I I could sue you for damages, but could I flatter myself with any success without suffering an expense often times the amount, which your treacherous hand snatches from my pocket ? I would, however, inform you that our Government, on which! have to call for all the losses its culpable inaction is causing to me and to all the claimants on Mexico, will be duly informed of this transaction of yours; and as all my communications with it on the subject are made public, you will appear in them in your true colours. I consider it, on the other hand; to be my duty to warn the public against dealing with an infamous scoundrel, a consummate liar, and a coward, worthy only of the lash of your obedient servant. — Santangelo. I certify the above is a true copy of a letter sent to J. P. Jonesj— Washington, May 26th, 1842. Eugene Plunkett. ? 10 NO. 11. This is a letter from Santangelo to Mc Roberts dated May]27th, , 184*, filed in the original documents at said No. 11,* and copied in lull in Santangelo's Instructions to his Counsel. NO. 12. Letter from Mc Roberts to Santangelo, dated Washington, May 28th 1842— filed in the original documents at said No. 12, and copied m lull in said Instructions. NO. 13. Letter from Santangelo to Mc Roberts dated Washington, June 1st 1842, filed in the originals at No. 13, and copied in full in said Instruc tions. NO. 14. Copy — To the President of the United FStates — Sir — From the accompanying copy of a letter which I have just addressed to the more honored than honorable Senator of the United States of America, Mr. Samuel Mc Roberts, you will perceive, to what a degree of violence and distress the rights of your citizens wronged by Mexico, are now brought by your inexplicable inaction. Your most humble servant — Santangelo. Washington, June 1st, 1842. I certify the above is a true copy of a letter sent to the President of the United States. Washington, June 1st, 1842. Eugene Plunkett. NO. 15. Copy. — To Hon. Willie P. Mangum, President of the Senate- Sir — I herewith enclose a copy of a note which I addressed yesterday to Senator Samuel Mc Roberts from Illinois, as you should know intus et in cute every one of the members of the Body, of which you are the head. I take this step, not from any hope of interference on your part be tween that extremely honorable Pater Conscriptus and myself, for he would always prefer $1650 to your esteem. My object is to let you know that should I ever be obliged to chastise in some way the base covetousness of that miserable blackguard, this should not imply the slightest idea of disrespect on my part to your august Body. — With sentiment of high consideration, I have the honor to be, your most obe dient servant — S antangel o. Washington, June 2d, 1842. I certify the above is a true copy of a note addressed to Hon. Willie P. Mangum— Washington, June 2d, 1842. Eugene Plunkett. 11 NO. 16. The original insulting and provoking letter, of seven written pages dated — Washington City, June 4th, 1842, wholly written by Samuel Mc Roberts, signed by him, addressed to O. de A. Santangelo — which letter was afterwards printed and inserted in full by said Mc Roberts in his libellous pamphlet published in Washington, under date of the 9th of August 1842, entitled " Address of Mr. Mc Roberts of the Senate of the United States, in reply to a publication of 0. de Santangelo," a copy of which pamphlet is annexed, under the letter B, to the Deposi tion of Johnson K. Rodgers, taken by order of the Court of Sessions on the 10th of September, 1842 ; and another is filed amongst the docu ments of the defendant, Santangelo, at No. 26. NO. 17. Letter from Mad. Santangelo to Senator Mc Roberts, dated Washing ton, June 6th 3 842 — filed in the original documents at No. 17, and co pied in full in the Instructions of Mr. Santangelo to his Counsel. NO. 18. - Obligation of Charles J. Nourse Esq. dated Washmgton, June 6th, 1842 — filed amongst the originals at No. 18, and copied in full in said Instructions. NO. 19. Another obligation of the same person under same date — filed in the originals at No. 19, and copied in full in said Instructions. g no. ao. Extract from the " Weekly Herald" of New York, of Saturday the 18th of June 1842, page 308, column 3d under the head, " Washington, Monday Evening (wnich was the 13 th of June) proceedings in Con gress &c." " A personal altercation took place in the Senate between Mc Ro berts of Illinois, and Mr. Smith of Connecticut. Mr. Smith charged Mr. Mc Roberts with falsehood. The latter retorted with some spirit, but there is no danger of bloodshed. There will never be another fight in Congress. Recent events have shown that there is great economy of human life in the Chivalry of the present day." NO. 21. The original letter from Santangelo to Samuel Mc Roberts, dated Washington, D. C. June 30th, 1842, in refutation of the insulting and false statements made by the latter in his letter of the 4th June, before 12 mentioned- which original letter was afterwards published by Mr. S. in his "Circular to the World," denounced as libellous by said Mc Ro- Jbserts,,and filed in Mr. Santangelo's documents under No. 25. JFo said letter is subjoined the following declaration : Washington, D. C. June 30th, 1822-1, the undersigned, do hereby certify and attest that the above letter, written on thirty-one pages of common letter paper, addressed to Samuel Mc Roberts, and signed "Santangelo," is identically the same which, at the request of the lat- iter, I have copied from his autograph—which was folded, sealed, superscribed, and delivered by me at the door of the Senate Chamber this morning at 9 o'clock ; and which, after having been unsealed and enveloped under a different cover, was returned to Mr. Santangelo, at or about 12 o'clock, without any answer. Eugene Plunkett. NO. 22. This is the cover in which Mr. Mc Roberts enveloped the letter of the 30th of June 1 842, addressed to him by Mr. Santangelo, and by him (Mc Roberts.) opened, and contemptuously returned to the latter, as stated by Mr. Plunkett in the proceeding document No. 21 . Said cover bears a superscription in blue ink written by Mc Roberts himself in the following terms : f* 0. de A. Santangelo— at Mrs. Gazaways'— Corner of lOthStreet — Washington City." NO. 23. Extract from a letter from James F. Haliday, foreman of Mr. Force's nprrating establishment in the city of 'Washington: "Washington, July list 1842~*Gen.'Santangelo--The letter toMc Roberts, which Mr. Plnn- Jtett left -with me to be printed, I have submitted to'Mr. Force, and he requests me to say, that although he is desirous of accomodating you, it will be impossible for him for a week or two to put the work in the office, in as .much as he has promised a small volume now in hand - within a specified time, and it cannot be put aside ; and owing to the great delay in Congress making an appropriation for our work long Since due, and the difficulty in collecting money elsewhere, he cannot increase the number of his hands, when he has no immediate resources to meet the expense &c. Very respectfully— James F. Haliday." K7" In confirmation of the above, see the affidavit of said James F. Haliday, of the 5th of Sept. last. Doc. No. 29. »««**. 13 NO. 24, Extract from a letter from Mr. Eugene Plunkett to Mr. Santangelo, dated Washington, June 6th, 1842— fifed amongst the original documents at No. 24, and copied in full in Santangelo's Instructions to his Coun sel. NO. 25, This is the pamphlet entitled " A Circular to the World," which Mr. Santangelo published in New York under date of the 26th July, 1842, and with his own signature, in which he refutes line by line, and word by word, the insulting letter addressed to him by Mc Roberts, dated the 4th of June, which "Circular to the World," filed amongst Santangelo's documents at No. 25, forms the basis for his present prosecution for libel before the Court of General Sessions. NO. 26, This is a pamphlet published by Samuel Mc Roberts in Washing ton under his own name, and bearing date the 9th of August, 1842, en titled "Address of Mr. Mc Roberts of the Senate of the United States, in reply to a publication of 0. de Santangelo" ; which pamphlet bears on its title page an anonymous note by the Publisher, containing the most defamatory insults and calumnies, and on its 3d page it is address ed " To the Public." NO, 27. TO ALL MEN. . A Pamphlet has made its appearance in the city of Washington un der the title of "Address of Mr. Mc Roberts, of the Senate of the United States, in reply to a Publication of O. De Santangelo." To this title is immediately subjoined, under the anonymous. desig nation of " Note by the Publisher," a calumnious denunciation, charging publicly "Santangelo" with defaming crimes "wholly new in Ms country ....!!!" On the second printed page of the Pamphlet, the " Address" appears made " To the Public.1' In his " Address" to the Public, Mc Roberts bravely involves in his slander Madame Santangelo, a perfect model of all social and domestic virtues, and Mr. Plunkett, a youth of 22 years of age, whose talents, morals,, manners, point of honor and patriotism, would command the respect of the universe. The world will now be presented (in a document which shall be sent to-morrow or next 'day to the printer J with a full incontrovertible evi dence of Samuel Mc Roberts, and his absconding " Publisher," be ing, if not two furious madmen, or mad desperadoes, incontestibly a couple of barefaced impostors, abject ruffians, cowardly felons, igno rant slaves, exhibiting in their hideous persons such a complication of 14 refined malice, wanton iniquity, perverse ribaldry, meretricious impu dence, moral corruption, and such an example of open rebellion to ai natural and social obligations, principles of common i honesty, and leei ings of self-respect, that scarcely any thing approaching their nenisa character could ever be found, by the most diligent peruser, in tne an nals of human wickedness, or the criminal records of all ancient ana modern nations. , . ,. I shall support, under oath, this affirmation before any court ot justice, or even, if called upon for it, sword in hand, regardless ot all conse quences. Deus, meumque jus is my first motto ; preferring death to in famy, is, always was, and shall always be, the second. Orazio de Attellis Santangelo. New York, August 26, 1842. NO, 28, Washington, 3d Sept. 1842. Dear Mada m, In answer to your note of this morning, I have to inform you, that the " Index" was ordered by the Secretary of the Senate, during the Session of that body, for the Hon. Samuel Mc Roberts, of Illinois, and that it was regularly sent to him. Very respectfully, J. M. Johnson, Proprietor of the Index. To Mrs. Mary de Santangelo, Washington. NO. 29, I James F. Haliday, do hereby certify and attest that on or about the 30th of June, of the present year, Mr. Eugene Plunkett left at the Print ing establishment of Mr. Peter Force, a manuscript copy, addressed to Samuel Mc Roberts by Mr. O. de A. Santangelo, with a request that it should be immediately printed ; and that on the following day, I re turned said letter to Mr. Santangelo, with a note, informing him that Mr. Force was desirous to accommodate him, but that it would be impos sible to put the work in hand for a week or two, on account of a prom ise to finish, within a specified time, a small volume then printing, which could not be put aside, &c. ; and I further certify and attest, that the letter addressed to Samuel Mc Roberts, and published by Mr. San tangelo in a pamphlet entitled " A Circular to the World," is to the best of my knowledge and belief, a true copy of the Manuscript le tter above written. James H. Haliday. Sworn and Subscribed before me, this 5th day of September, 1842. R. K. MORSELL, J. P. 15 NO, 30, Ten Certificates, delivered by printers in Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, D. C— affirming that the "Address" of Mc Roberts was not printed in their various printing offices— filed amongst the original documents at No. 30, and lettered A to J, inclusive. NO. 31, 'Georgetown, D. C, Sept. 6th, 1832. The pamphlet " Address of Mr. Mc Roberts, of the Senate of the United States m reply to a publication of 0. de Santangelo ;" was first handed to me by Jonathan Elliott Esq. in a reporter's box in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, August 16th, 1842. Henry Hardy. NO 32, Santangelo's " Circular to all Men" dated August 26th, with the ad dition of some lines addressed by him to the District Attorney and three members of the Grand Jury— filed in the Original documents at No. 32, and copied in full in his Instructions to his Counsel. NO. 33, Sworn Certificate of Mr. Charles Fenderich, dated Washington, Sept. 7th, 1842— filed in the originals at No. 33, and copied in full in said In structions. NO. 34. THE INDICTMENT. Copy— City and County of New York, ss: The Jurors of the People of the State of New York in and for the bo dy of the city and county of New York, upon their oath present that, Samuel Mc Roberts long before, and at the time of the writing, printing and. publishing of the false, scandalous, malicious and defama tory libels hereinafter mentioned, hath been a person of good name, fame, credit and reputation, and as such hath for and during all the time afore said been reputed, esteemed and respected by and amongst all good and worthy citizens of the State of New York, to whom he Was in anywise known. And the Jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, that the said Samuel Mc Roberts, before and at the time of the writing, printing and publishing of the false, scandalous, malicious and defamato ry libels hereinafter mentioned, was a Senator- in the Congress of the United States, representing the State of Illinois in said Congress. And the Jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, 16 that one Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, Jate of the First Ward of the City of New York in the County of New York aforesaid, gentleman, well knowing the premises, but being a person of a wicked and malif cious mind and disposition, and unlawfully, wickedly, and maliciously devising, contriving, and intending as much as in him lay, to injure, ag? grieve, and scandalize, vilify, and defame the said Samuel Mc Roberts and to provoke him the said Samuel Mc Roberts to commit a breach ef the peace, on the twenty-sixth day-of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, with force and arms &c. at the Ward, City, and County of New York aforesaid in his great ha tred, malice, and ill-will, towards the said Samuel Mc Roberts, unlaw fully and' maliciously in a paper or pamphlet entitled "A Circular to the World," and addressed to said Samuel Mc Roberts, did compose, print and publish, and cause and procure to be composed, printed, and published of and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts a certain/o/jc, scandalous, malicious, and defamatory libel, containing therein in a cer tain part thereof (amongst other things) the false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory and libellous words and matter following of and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say " Your" (meaning said Sam uel Mc Roberts) "knavery now appeared in my eyes (meaning the eyes of said Santangelo) " to be so eminently mean and dirty that I" (said San tangelo meaning), "feared to become polluted by looking at you" (said Mc Roberts meaning) " with any other feeling than that of contempt.'1'' And in a certain other part of said libel there was and is contained these other false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory, and libellous words and matter, following of and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say " True, I" (said Santangelo meaning) "am at a loss to get u microscope fit to enable me to run after the flying-fighting, impercep tible insect" [meaning the said Samuel Mc Roberts] " with which I" [said Santangelo meaning] " liave to deal ; " but the idea of your name" [meaning the name of said Mc Roberts] " being connected, by one of those wordly anomalies, for which no man can account, with the title of Senator of the United States, has given me" [said Santangelo meaning] " strength enough to overcome all difficulties. With a Samuel Mc Ro berts half a dozen lashes on the face would soon settle the question, but with a Senator" [meaning said Samuel Mc Roberts,] "the living shame of an august assembly '> P' [said Santangelo meaning] "feel the power of other duties: 1" [said Santangelo meaning] " am to follow- such a course as (Ae Honor of the Senate, and of the Nation repre sented by it, demands. And in a certain other part of said libel, there was and is contained, these other false; scandalous, malicious, defamatory and libellous words and matter following, of, and concerning, the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say: " What I" (said Santangelo meaning) "now have to tell you" (said Mc Roberts meaning) " my darling little one, must be prefaced by my stating to you that, he who has already been qualified as an • ungenerous and villanous being,' and charged with wanton in jurious and reckless knavery, as you (said Mc Roberts meaning) "were in my letter" (meaning the letter of said Santangelo) "of the first instant, has no right to have his insults taken notice of until, he clears himself of those debasing qualifications, either through a frank apology, or by such means as are pointed out by the laws of chivalry 17 and honor. A knave" (meaning said Mo Roberts) " cannot offend any body." And in a certain other part of said libel, there was and is con tained, these other false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory, and libel lous words and matter following, of and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts : " Your jest" (meaning the jest of said Samuel Mc Rob erts) " only proves that pu" (said Mc Roberts meaning) " are either a most consummate jUckass, or a designing author of false imputations." And in a certain other part of said libel, there was and is contained, these other false, scandalous, malicious and libellous words and matter following, of and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts: " Are you" (said Mc Roberts meaning) "not a knave?" And in a certain other part of said libel, there was, and is contained these other false, scanda lous, malicious, defamatory, and libellous words and matter, follow- ing,.of, and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say: " And is the respectability of my promises" (meaning the promises of said Santangelo) " to be questioned by a man" (meaning said Samuel Mc Roberts) " whose offers, promises, engagements in the very case now in question, have so glaringly turned out lo be but a heap of the foulest frauds .'" And in a certain other part of said libel, there was, and is contained these other false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory, and libel lous words and matter following, of, and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say, " Are you" (said Mc Roberts meaning) " a man? I" (said Santangelo meaning) "ask pardon; I thought you" (said Mc Roberts meaning) " ivere an ourang outang." And in a certain other part of said libel, there was contained these other false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory, and libellous words and matter following, of, and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say " Do you" (said Mc Roberts meaning) " understand these words : duty, honor, rights, country, sovereignty, &c," " you" (said Mc. Roberts meaning) " miserable slave of money, certificates, dollars, cents, interest, and of every thing that is mean, dirty, base, vulgar, vil lanous, covetous, sordid and cowardly ?" And in a certain other part of said libel, there was, and is contained these other false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory, and libellous words and matter following, off and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say ; " That an ignoramus" (meaning said Mc Roberts) "who applies in the same phrase to the substantive United States, the verb " have" in the plural, and the singular possessive pronoun " her ;" " who (said Samuel Mc Roberts meaning) "is fit only to sweep the stairs of the Senate, and who evinces his abilities to discharge the high duties of his station only by greedily devouring eight dollars per- day, is not in need of advice from any body — granted." And in a certain other part of said libel, there was in, and is con tained these other false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory and libellous words and matter, of, and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say, "Millions of dollars would never be preferred by me" (said Santangelo meaning) " to the extreme pleasure of proclaiming you" [said SamuelMc Roberts meaning] " to be a dastardly knave" to the great scandal, infamy, and disgrace of the said Samuel Mc Roberts, to the evil example of all others, and against the peace of the people of the State of New York' and their dignity." And the Jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid do further present, 3 18 thst the said Orazio de Atteffis Santangelo further contriving, intend ing, as aforesaid, on the said twenty-sixth day of August in the year ol our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, with force and arms &c. at the first ward of the city and county of New York afore said of his hatred, malice and ill-will towards the said Samuel McKob- ets, unlawfully, wickedly and maliciously did print and publish, and cause and procure to be composed, printed and published, in the form of a letter to one William S. Fulton, a certain other false, scandalous and defamatory libel, of, and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, containing therein, amongst other things, the following false, scandal ous, malicious, defamatory and libellous words and matter, of, and con cerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say : " This Mc Rob erts'' (said Samuel Mc Roberts meaning) " must be one of those suffi' samts or parvenus who having succeeded to snateh from the credulity of an ignorant mass of the people in their savage abode an appoint ment to a high office, fondly believe themselves to be truly endowed with such a high respectability of talents and character as to compel all men, of all classes and nations, to admire in silence all their thoughts and doings, even their ridiculous presumption, even their criminal in-1 solence. In a country where mobocracy is less in honor, this Mc Rob erts would find himself very happy to clean boots at one dollar per month," to the great scandal, infamy and disgrace of the said Samuel Mc Roberts, to the evil example of all others and against the peace of the people of the Slate of New York and their dignity. And the Jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid do further present that the s"aid Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, further contriving and in tending as aforesaid, on the said twenty-sixth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty- two " with force and Arms" &c. at the first ward of the city and county of New York afore said, of his hatred, malice, and ill-will towards the said Samuel Mc Roberts, unlawfully, wickedly and maliciously, did compose, print and publish, and cause and procure to be composed, printed and published, a certain other false, scandalous, malicious and defamatory libel, of, and concerning the said Samuel Mc Roberts, containing therein, amongst other things, the following false, scandalous, malicious, defamatory and libellous words and matter, of, and concerning said Samuel Mc Roberts, that is to say : " the world, to-whom this circular is addressed, will easily perceive that if not for the enormity of the crime, certainly for the re finement of immorality, the Honorable Mitchell, lately condemned to the State Prison of New York, is far surpassed by the Honorable Mc Roberts" (meaning said Samuel Mc Roberts) " still a Senator of the United States," to the great scandal, infamy, and disgrace of the said Samuel Mc Roberts, to the evil example of all others, and against the peace of the people of the Stale of New York and their dignity. _ , , Whiting, District Attorney. Endorsed, " John B.- Purr oy, Esq." 19 NO. 35. AFFIDAVIT OF SANTANGELO, Court of General Sessions of the Peace, in and for the City and County of New York — The People of the State of New York — vs. Orazio de A. Santangelo. Orazio de A. Santangelo, the above named defendant, being duly sworn, says that the indictment in this cause was found on the' 7th September instant — that on the 8th of said month Jno. B. Purroy called at the office of the District Attorney and asked the clerk for a copy of said indictment, as deponent is informed, and said clerk replied that there was no copy then ready but that one would be ready this day— That de ponent with his said counsel went this morning again to the office of said District Attorney, about 10 A. M., and then obtained a copy of the indictment — That deponent received information this morning for the first time that his case would be called on this morning, when deponent appeared in Court and plead not guilty. And deponent further says that the aforesaid indictment is for an al leged libel said to have been published against Samuel Mc Roberts — That deponent has seen a publication signed by said Mc Roberts of a very scandalous and libellous character against deponent, wherein, among other opprobrious and defamatory epithets, deponent is accused of being a " felon" a " traitor" and a " low, base and infamous scoundrel" — That deponent has received information and verily believes that such publication has been written, published, and circulated by said Mc Roberts. That the subject and occasion of the alleged libel of deponent are con nected with the transactions of the late mixed commission to determine the demands of citizens of the United States against Mexico — That de ponent, who is a citizen of the U. S., was and still is a claimant against Mexico, and had an award in his favour of $50,000 — that duly authen ticated copies of documents used before said Commission and now on file at Washington, will be necessary for deponent on the trial of the cause, without which copies deponent cannot safely proceed to trial as he is advised by his said Counsel and verily believes — That deponent does not expect to be able to procure said copies before the next Novem ber term of this Court. That William J. Fulton, Senator of the U. S. from the State of Ar kansas, and other Senators whose residence this deponent has not yet been able to ascertain, and Eugene Plunkett, a resident of the city of Washington, are material witnesses for this defendant, and without their testimony this defendant cannot safely proceed to trial as deponent is advised and verily believes. O. de A. Santangelo. Sw.orn to, this 9th day of Sept. 1842, in open Court. Henry Vandervoort, Clerk, 20 NO. 36. DEPOSITION AND CROSS EXAMINATION OF JOHNSON K. ROGERS. Court of General Sessions— City and County of New York—The People, &c. vs. Orazio de Attellis Santangelo— Indictment for a Libel. The deposition of Johnson K. Rogers, taken by order of the Court, and by agreement of parties, to be read in evidence upon the trial of said cause, subject to all legal exceptions, said deposition being taken at the office of James R. Whiting, Esq. in the City of New York, this tenth day of December, A. D., 1842. JOHNSON K. ROGERS, being duly sworn, doth depose and say as follows, that he was in the city of Washington, about the first part of August last, and that copies of a pamphlet signed Santangelo, assailing the Honorable Samuel Mc Roberts, were received there by members of Congress, and circulated in said city of Washington — that in said month of August he accompanied the Hon. Samuel Mc Roberts, a Senator of the United States, from the State of Illinois, to whom said pamphlet is addressed, to the City of New York, and that he, the deponent, in company with Mr. Bell, called at the house where said Santangelo resided, and enquired of said Santangelo about said pamphlet — that said Orazio Attellis Santangelo gave this deponent two copies of said pamphlet, one of which is hereto attached, headed "a Circular to the World." Said Santangelo at the same time gave to Mr. Bell, two of said pamphlets in presence of this deponent, this was on the twenty- sixth day of August last ; said Santangelo stated that he was the wri ter and publisher of said pamphlet, and that he had distributed and cir culated the same in this City (the City of New York) — and that he had sent copies of the same to the members of Congress, and to the mem bers of the Diplomatic Corps at Washington City — said Santangelo, further stated in the same conversation, that he had never seen Mf Mc Roberts, but that his design was to hold him up to the public in the man ner set forthin said pamphlet. Being cross examined by defendant's Counsel, he says, he thinks the Mr. Bell referred to above, is a Printer— he (Bell) resides in the City of New York, as witness is informed by Smith the Police officer — said Bell was present during the whole of the conversation between witness and Santangelo— witness requested Bell to accompany him for the pur pose of being present at the interview which might take place between Mr. Santangelo and witness— witness went to Mr Santangelo's residence at the request of Mr. Mc Roberts— -Mr. Mc Roberts told me that Mr. Santangelo might take the exception that he was not the author of the publication, and that the object was to ascertain from Mr. Santangelo himself that he was the author—when witness went to Santangelo's, witness told Santangelo that he wanted to buy some of the pamphlets', that witness lived in Georgia, and he wanted to buy some to send to his friends— Santangelo received no money or compensation for the pam- phlets— witness is an intimate friend of Mr. Mc Roberts— witness re ceived, no compensation for calling upon Mr. Santangelo, nor was he offered any, nor promised any— Santangelo told witness, that he (San- 21 tangelo) had been badly treated by Mc Roberts, and hence he [Santan gelo] published the pamphlet — Santangelo also said, that he [Santange lo] had defended the United States, in Mexico in a paper which he pub lished there, and that that was the cause of his banishment; that he was, and had been a citizen of the United States for the last ten or fif teen years; that he had claims against the government of Mexico, as a citizen of the United States ; that the Mixed Commission had awarded to him a certain sum, and that he [Santangelo] had certificates for said sum: that Mrs. Santangelo and a Mr. Plunkett had called upon Mr. Mc Roberts with these Certificates for the purpose of borrowing, or raising money, and that they had got a certain amount from Mr. Mc Roberts for the Certificates, twenty-five cents on the dollar, and that he (Santan gelo) and Mc Roberts had had a dispute in relation thereto. Witness saw in Washington City on Monday last, a pamphlet like the annexed pamphlet marked B signed in the same manner — I saw the pamphlet last mentioned at Mrs. Mounts' in Washington, where witness boarded — the name of Senator Fulton was upon it ; but not in the hand writing of Mr. Mc Roberts. Said Mc Roberts requested witness to call on Santangelo as above for the purpose also of obtaining proof that he [Santangelo] had pub lished said pamphlet here. [Signed] John K. Rogers. Sworn to before me this 10th day of September, 1842. J. Labagh, Commissioner of Deeds. We agree that the above deposition be read on the trial of the above cause, subject to all legal exceptions, in the same manner as if the same had been taken before one of the Judges of the Court of Sessions. Sep tember 10th, 1842. " [Signed] J. R- Whiting, District Attorney. J. B. Purroy, of Counsel for Defs. Mr. Santangelo,' NO, 37, New York, July 25th, 1842. To James Turney, Dr. To printing Pamphlet " Circular to the World," 300 copies, $14 00 " Paper for covers and binding, 1 38 $15 58 Received Payment, James Turney. NO. 38. Washington, 5th Sept. 1842. Madame, In answer to your enquiry I have to say that I have had some busi- 22 ness transactions with Mr. Santangelo, during his residence in this city and that in them his conduct was gentlemanly and honorable. I am very respectfully, yours, &c. Francis A. Dickens. Mrs. Santangelo, Washington,. NO, 39, Washington, Sept. 5th, 1842. Dear Madam, I take great pleasure in bearing testimony to the honorable conduct and gentlemanly deportment of your respected husband, Mr. O. de A. Santangelo, for since I have had the pleasure of his acquaintance— now nearly two years — I have remarked in him all those finer feelings that characterize the educated gentleman and man of honor. ^Permit me, Madam, to sign myself your respectful and obt. servant. Chas. Fendekich. Madame Santangelo, Washington City, D. C NO. 40, Washington City, Sept. 5th, 1842. G. L. Thompson of the city of Washington, having this day appeared before me and being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that he is well ac- quainted with Sig. Orazio de Attellis Santangelo, and that he has been residing in this city for some time past ; that his deportment and char acter have been that of a high-minded, independent, and well bred gen tleman, most intelligent and well informed. He the said deponent further says, that of his own knowledge the said Sig. Santangelo has devoted much time to the investigation of the Claims of American Citizens against Mexico, and written much on this important subject. And from the general knowledge the deponent has of Sig. Santangelo, he believes him incapable of doing any man inten tionally an injury or an unkindness, except when he has been previous ly insulted, ill-treated, or wronged. G. L. Thompson. Sworn and subscribed before me, this 5th day of September, 1842. Gilbert L. Giberson, J. P. NO. 41, Washington City, Sept. 6th, 1842. I certify, that for the last two yeaTs I have been well acquainted with Mr. Santangelo, and that, during that period of time, I have uniformly 23 found his deportment to be that of a gentleman. In all my dealings' with Mr. Santangelo he has acted as a man of strict integrity. Vincent Masi. Sworn and subscribed before the undersigned, a Justice of the Peace1 In and for the County of Washington, District of Columbia. W. Thompson, J. P. NO. 42. Washington City, Sept. 7th, 1842. Madam Santangelo, I take great pleasure in saying that I became acquainted with your husband more than a year ago, and have often met him in my office and elsewhere in this city, and have always regarded him as a gentle man, and a man of honor. With great respect, your obt. servant, N. Callan, Jr.. NO. 43. CONFIDENTIAL. New York, Sept. 26th, 1842. Dear Sir, In your Weekly Herald,»which is in my possession, dated Saturday, June 18th, 1842, page 308 — column 3d — under the head : " Washing ton, Monday Evening (which Was the 13th of June) — Proceedings in Congress" — I read the following : " A personal altercation took place in the Senate between Mc Ro berts of Illinois, and Mr. Smith of Connecticut. Mr. Smith charged Mr. Mc Roberts with falsehood" &c. You know, Sir, that I am now under trial for libel before the Court of Sessions of this city. One of the charges made by the accuser Mc Roberts is to have repeated the ab®ve statement in my letter to him of the 30th of the same month of June. The charge, published in a scur rilous pamphlet of the 9th of August last, is conceived in the following terms : _ " He (myself) says in his publication that I was charged with false hood in open Senate ; and he is so minute as to state the day (the 13th of June). The following letter from the Hon. Richard M. Young and the Hon. W, R. King, two of the Senators, prove this to be another of the falsehoods of this low, base, and infamous scoundrel." The letter quoted by Mc Roberts is the following : " Senate Cham ber, August 1st, 1842 — Hon. Samuel Mc Roberts — Sir ; Your note is received, in which you inform us that one O. de Santangelo, in a publi cation recently made, has stated that you were charged on the 13th of June, by one of the Senators, in open Senate, with falsehood, and you ask us to say whether the statement is true or not. — In answer we un- 24 hesitatingly say that the statement, by whoever made, is utterly untrue." —Your obedient servants— Richard M. Young— William R. King. We have, then here, my dear Sir, two Senators who assert that the statement, by whoever made (thus including the Herald) is untrue, and a Mc Roberts, who, in his gratuitous supposition of my having been the inventor of the statement (whilst he could not be ignorant of the fact of my having copied it from a newspaper which is in the-hands of every body all over the Union, and which he did not dare to contradict when made by the Herald), applies directly to me, and indirectly to the Editor of the Herald, in his senatorial gravity and decency, the noble epithets of " low, base, and infamous scoundrel." In the necessity of refuting, in my turn, these slanders, I shall not be able to refrain from producing before the Court that Number of the Herald, because I cannot doubt that a paper so constantly distinguished for its courageous veracity, will but fully evince the libellous culpabil ity of that pater conscriptus. It is my duty, however, to address to you these few lines beforehand, to consult your opinion on the subject, being ready to conform with it, if it is possible to conciliate it, in some Way or other, with the supremely important object of sheltering myself from the assault, which is threatening at once my honor, my liberty, nnd, perhaps, at some future period, my life ..... Pray, favor me with an answer as speedily as convenient, and be lieve me at all times, Respectfully yours, &c. 0. de A. Santangelo, 130 Broadway. J. G. Bennett, Esq., New York. I certify that the above is a copy of a letter handed by me to J. G. Bennett Esq. this 26th day of September, 1842. Eugene Plunkett. NO. 44. The original letter of Mad. Santangelo, dated Washington, July 12, 1842, addressed to Santangelo New York, and containing this informa tion : " I have at last succeeded in finding your letter to Mc Roberts, and have sent it to you immediately. I hope you will receive it safely as you appear so very desirous of having it.— M. de A. Santangelo." To which the following lines from Mr. Plunkett are subjoined : " My Dear Friend— Madame having written to you at length, I will • ¦> ,i.<£)T^o\my V&mfh]%>. entitled, » Protest against the Convention of April Iltn, 1839, between the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico and against both of said governments &c. Washington, January 13th, 1S42 " ' (.t' Ti0?5 I u-on R°enne> in ^is instance, is lucidly demonstrated it. another pamphlet which is under press in Washington, at the printing office of Col. Force, and of which 108 pages are already struck off. • ^^ Tee,,my>S7^lei.t-ers to the President of the United States, first published in the "Index" of Washington, and then re-published by P. * * * in New-York in pamphlet form, under the title of « The honor of the United States of America under the administration of Tyler, Webster & Co. New- York, August 12 1S42 ' ID- Another decisive proof of the cabalistic conduct of the £cretarv of f state oH^erlE^Washington, date! « Mexico, S*A?% M^tl!^^^ £ 37 Such occurrences had involved many unhappy claimants on Mexico and amongst them myself, in the most distressing pecuniary difficulties by placing them in the alternative either ta fall in debt, humiliation, and disgrace to protract their lives and those of their disconsolate fami lies, or to sacrifice, for a few cents on a dollar, the certificates of their liquidated, pitilessly reduced, but definitively adjudged claims on Mexi co ; which certificates had been delivered to them by our National Treasury, conformably to the respective awards of the board or the Prussian Umpire. It was under these calamitous circumstances that I happened to have to deal with Samuel Mc Roberts ! But who was the first provoker ? The following genuine and proved narrative will solve this important question. The Mexico-American board disbanded on the 25th of February ultimo. The Treasury Department delivered to those claimants, in whose favor awards had been made, the certificates of their respective creditsi commonly called "Mexican certificates" or " Mexican scrip." I received mine to the sum of $50,000. . But this paper, quite unknown in our money-markets, had no fixed value. In the beginning of April following, I was in want of money. I had, on the 18th of February, punctually returned to a Dr. T. P. Jones $200 which he had lent me for the expired term of four months, with the in terest of 5 per ct. per month, besides a bonus of $5 (doc. 1). I was now on the point of applying again to Mm for money, when I was informed that a sale of Mexican Scrip, belonging to a deceased claimant, Mr. Miller, had taken place on the 28 th of February at the auction store of Messrs. Robert, Dyer & Co. at 48 and 49 cents to the dollar ; and that a Samuel Mc Roberts, a senator from of Illinois, had bought some at 48 cents (doc. 2). I was, moreover, apprized that said senator had still money to employ in the acquisition of Mexican Scrip. I then supposed that he would gladly have taken some of mine, at the same, if not at a higher price than he had paid for it at auction. But, on further inqui ries, I learned that he would now prefer to advance money at 25 cents on the dollar in scrip, giving a certain time to redeem it by paying to him the legal interest at the rate of 6 per ct. per annum, under the con dition of the pledged scrip remaining forfeited in his favor, if not re deemed at the expiration of the term agreed upon. This arrangement seemed to me far more advantageous than the sale of my scrip at 48, or even at 50 cents in the dollar without a chance of redeeming it. That paper was not, in my opinion, a commercial or bancal effect, subject to fluctuations or arbitrary valuations. It evi dently represented a positive credit against both the Mexican and the American governments, solemnly acknowledged by them, in virtue of a public treaty, a compromise, a judicial award, a final, unappealable, " unaccountable that they have not been sent), I will answer with my head to " have it arranged, and a much better arrangement made than that of the Conven- " tion, in one moment, if any thing defeats this, it will be the delay in present- " ing the claims I repeat the most positive assurance that, in " a month, I can arrange the matter of the awards as well as the pending claims. " If it is true that those in whose favor awards have been made, " are sacrificing them at the rate that I have heard — you are authorized in my " name to advise them against such sacrifices. I regard the paper quite as good " as any other government paper &c." 38 irrevocable arbitration, and, of course, virtually under the special guar anty and responsabilily of the United States in favor of her own citizens, and actually bearing, asa-living productive capital, the interest of 8 per ct. per annum, from the day of the award, according to the letter of the treaty. I did not doubt, therefore, that such paper would soon become saleable at par, or even at a premium. An American minister plenipo tentiary, Gen. Thompson, had already been sent to Mexico, and every body thought that among his instructions from our State Department, he had received that of asking there the immediate payment of the awards, both capital and interest, due by that government. It was, then, reason ably to be expected that, within two or three months, our Mexican cer tificates would have been considered as good as any other government paper of the United States. In this persuasion, frustrated afterwards by the black cabals of our illustrious statesman Daniel Webster, I felt sure to be able to rescue in a short time my Mexican certificates from the Senator's grasp. Accordingly, on the 6th of April, Mad. Santangelo (as I was sick), in company with Mr. Eugene Plunkett, a young gentleman, who had ac companied me from New Orleans, to assist me in the prosecution of my claims in Washington, went to see Mr. Mc Roberts, and not the Senator Mc Roberts, at his lodgings, who received them most courteously. He being married, and having his wife with him, I did not think it indeli cate to send mine to transact business with him in my name. Mad. S. began her conversation by endeavoring to obtain from Mc Roberts a term of four or six months for the rescue of the certificates, on which she agreed to receive an advance of only 25 cents on the dol lar ; to which he opposed that he could not grant a longer term than two months, in view of the probability of Congress adjourning early in June following, and the necessity for his then leaving for Illinois : thus openly insinuating that should Congress adjourn later, he would have no objection to extend the proposed term of two montlis as long as prac ticable. Mad. S. however, on this first application to that gentleman, wished to negotiate but a small certificate of $200, on which she received $50, together with his written obligation as follows : " I have bought of Mr. O. de Santangelo a certificate issued under the Mexican convention, No. 1159, dated 26th march 1842, signed T. L. Smith, for two hundred dollars — but I agree that if he pays me fifty dollars within two months from this dale, with interest at 6 per ct. per annum, I will transfer him said certificate— Samuel Mc Roberts— April 6, 1842." (doc. 3.) On this occasion the Senator stated to Mad. S. that he could employ a sum of $750 in buying Mexican scrip, in behalf of some wards to whom the money belonged, and accordingly offered her the continua tion of his services. Mr. Plunkett witnessed the whole transaction. On my reading the above receipt and obligation of Mc Roberts, I was at first struck by the words: "I have bought" fee, for I intended to contract a loan on and not a sale of my certificate ; but on observing that Mc Roberts had agreed to transfer me said certificate if within two months I returned him his $50 with the honest interest of 6 per ct. per annum, I was satisfied with its tenor. To buy under the obligation of re-selling the thing bought within a stated term on interest, or to lend 39 under the obligation for the borrower to rescue the thing pledged with in a stated term, and pay interest for it, or forfeit it, was identically the same. It could be said, however, that, as there is in law no such thing as a purchase with interest, nor a perfect sale until the pact of re-emp- tion is extinct, the contract with Mc Roberts was, properly speaking, a loan and not a sale: but he would rather appear a buyer than a money lender, that is all ; there was no harm in this, and I never complained ofit. F On the same terms I received from Mc Roberts two other advances of money, of $125, on the 15th of April, on a certificate of $500, (doc. 4.) and of $253,50, on the 23d of the same month, on another certificate of $1000. (doc. 5.) On the 28th of said month I received from Mc Roberts the follow ing note: " If Mr. Santangelo has two notes of five hundred dollars, they would be more convenient than one of a thousand — I am willing to purchase five hundred dollars this evening at 25 cents to the dollar as before." (doc. 6.) His Honor was obeyed. A certificate of $500 was sent him in the evening of that very day, on which I received $125. (doc. 7.) Thus I received the total sum of $553,50 on four certificates to the amount of $2200 ; with this difference, however, that only for the res cue of the first certificate of $200 was I granted tioo months time, that is, from the 6th of April to the 6th of June ; whilst, as to the others, on which I received posterior advances on the 15th, 23d, and 28th of that month, they were likewise to be rescued on the 6th of June, and not later, for the same alleged reason that " Congress would adjourn on or about that period, and then he, Mc Roberts, must return to Illinois. Here I deem it necessary to remark, that either Mad. Santangelo, or Mr. Plunkett, or both together, were constantly the negotiators of my scrip with Mc Roberts. I never visited, nor saw him. His willingness to acquire my scrip is evinced, less by their testimony, than by his own abovementioned note (doc. 6.) : and his eagerness for Mad. S. to con tinue her applications for money to him, was pushed even to flattery. He repeatedly told her he had the highest opinion of my talents, the warmest desire to make my personal acquaintance, and the greatest admiration of my letters to president Tyler, which I was at that period publishing in the " Index" of the city (a). Mad. S. has authorized me to declare to the court that she is ready to confirm these facts under oath. But, early in the following month of May, from what I heard about the conduct of the Secretary of Slate, touching Mexico and the American Claims, I began to apprehend that no steps had been taken to procure their payment, and that consequently, I would be unable to redeem on the 6th of June, my certificates left with Mc Roberts. I was then threatened with their forfeiture in his favor, and consequently with a loss of $1646 50. To avert this danger I contracted a loan for $600 with the same Dr. Jones, who had already had.proofs of my punctuality. He promised to lend me that sum on the 1st day of June following, on a promissory note payable six months after date, with the usual interest (a) See note (f ) page 36. 40 of 5 per cent, per month, and the collateral security of fout -times the value in Mexican scrip ! ! ! This contract was also made on my part through Mr. Plunkett and Mad. Santangelo. . mils rest n" on the promise of Doctor Jones, a note was received from him, dated'26th of May, and stating that " he i had just received from New York a call for the immediate payment of $500, which pre vented him from making me the proposed loan (doc. 8.) ; a loan, which was not merely proposed but most solemnly contracted. _ , This disappointment, evidently the result of a mysterious intrigue, made me indignant. I immediately returned the honest Doctor a pru dent answer simply recalling him to a sentiment of honor, (doc. 9.) JNo reply, no apology, but a contemptuous silence I then treated him as he deserved, (doc. 10.) But it was now generally known that Congress, owing to the embar rassments into which it had been thrown by the Executive's Vetoes, could not adjourn before August or September. I then had a reason to obtain from Mc Roberts a delay to enable me to procure from some other quarter the necessary means to rescue my certificates, since the only reason for which he had limited the first short term of two months to the 6th of June, was the supposed adjournment of Congress on or about that period. I then, with full confidence in his uprightness, deli cacy and equity, addressed to him the following lines: "Washington, May 27th 1842— Dear Sir— From the enclosed (a copy of my last note to Jones) you will perceive that I am the victim of an ' infamous trick. Still I am endeavoring to procure the necessary means to release my certificates, on which you had the goodness to advance me $550— At all events you will have no objection, I presume, to allow me one month more to procure the money from some other quarter. Your wards will suffer nothing from this indulgence ; and in all cases I offer you an interest of five per cent, for one month, or any other interest you may judge proper. No doubt Congress will not adjourn before July next, and you will be here to receive the money due for my certi ficates. Your politeness will be remembered with gratitude by — Your most obedient Servant — Santangelo — To Hon. Samuel Mc Roberts, Senator, &c. &c. &c." (doc. 11.) This letter has never been made known by the worthy Senator. Yet it was on its tenor he grounded his declaration of war. Hoping for no advantage in a competition of urbanity, and fearing to lose his prey by granting the requested indulgence of one month, he resolved to get rid at once of all importunity by resorting to the rude answer following : "Washington city, May 28th 1842 — Sir — Your letter is received. I purchased the certificates of you for the benefit of several minors, of which you were apprized. Since I made the purchase of you, I have been offered any amount of similar certificates by different persons (a), but have declined to take any more, as the immediate relations of the children think the amount I have purchased is as much as is proper to risk. As I have reported the purchase and the terms to the relations of the minors, I of course decline to make any change in the terms of (a) In fact, I was not the only claimant on Mexico forced by the culpable aban donment of our govenrnment to lose 75 cents on each dollar of our awarded indem nities. 41 the purchase— Very respectfully your obedient Servant— Samuel M«3 Roberts— Mr. Santangelo— Washington City." (doc 12.) What had I to do with his wards, minors, and children, and their re lations ? To what purpose did he mention to me the offers of other persons? I only solicited one month's time for the redemption of my scrip, which he could not honestly refuse, he knowing as a member of Congress better than any body else, the indubitable protraction of its adjournment. As a sensible man, he could not, on the other hand, be indifferent to the fact that my actual inability to redeem my certificates, far from being voluntary, was but the effect of an unexpected disap pointment from a treacherous usurer. He knew that I had been con tented to receive from him only 25 cents on the dollar in Mexican certifi- cates./er the sake of a chance to redeem them, at a period when, the inac tion of the Executive in demanding their payment from Mexico not being generally known, I could have sold them at auction at the same price that he had given for them [doc. 2]. Lastly, as a zealous agent for his real or supposed wards, he could never be reproached with granting me the short delay I had solicited, as I had offered, for this indulgence an interest, or gratification, which he never could expect from any other employment of the money. His rude refusal, grounded on the sole rea son of his " having reported the purchase and the terms to the supposed relations of the minors," was then evidently not only unfair but dishon est; and had it come from a common stock-jobber, I would bave~left it unnoticed; but, from a person in whom, on account of his public sta tion, I ought to presume to find some moral importance, I could not suf fer to be treated as an imbecile quidam. I saw, altogether, in that re fusal, an ungentlemanly trick, and wrote : " Washington, June 1st, 1842 — Hon. Samuel Mc Roberts — Sir — Your unsatisfactory note of the 28th ultimo has come to hand. I must give you my views on the subject. Unexpected disappointments obliged me, in April last, to borrow from you $550 on certificates of credit delivered to me, as a claimant on Mexico, by our Treasury Department, to the amount of $2,200, under the condition of forfeiting them if'not rescued on or before the 6th instant. However disastrous to me, dishonorable to you, and reproved by law were these terms, I respected them and your name. I solely complained of my own fate, and of the criminal course pursued by our Government in its relations with Mexico. Yet, I endeavoured to find means for the recovery of my certificates on the period agreed upon, and found a Doctor T. P. Jones, who most faithful ly promised me $600 on the 1st of this month, at five per cent, interest monthly, under the security of four times the value in said certificates, to be forfeited if not redeemed within six months. Relying on his doc toral word, I refrained from all other enquiries. But, on his having villanously retracted it, too late for me to procure other means, I im plored from you, under date of the 27th ultimo, one month delay, offer- in°r not merely five per cent, but any other interest you were pleased to asi:. This you have inexorably declined under the plea that you had run the risk in the purchase of my certificates, as a charge of some mi nors, to whose relations you had reported the whole transaction &c. " Risk, Sir ? Is this the language of a Senator of the United States ? What risk ? Would you regard as doubtful the duty of your Govern ment to comply with its convention with Mexico, approved by the Sen- 6 42 ate? Are you not obliged to defend the honor of your country, the rights of you? citizens, the sovereignty of your body, against a lvioba- tions of the Executive ? Would the national legislature regard the cer tificates of the national Treasury, as tricks? ^A^t^A " Whether your refusal be, or not, the result of a secret understand ing between you and Jones; whether you act for yourself or your mi nors, I shall not (consistent as I am with my myself in all my trans actions) object to our terms. But, before the tribunal of honor and morality, your refusal of the delay of one month, in spite of the ex orbitant interest proposed, is manifestly unjustifiable. It only shows your deliberate intention of snatching, per fas vel nefas, %i o50 irom my pocket. It becomes still more ungenerous, and even villanous, in considering our respective characters and standing: you, an aged learned gentleman, a public man, a lawgiver; I, a forsaken foreign er, an emigrant, a refugee, a septuagenary, a sufferer at the hand of Mexico for the sole and only motive of my advocating there, without offending that government at all, the interests, rights and honor of my adopted country ! ! ! " In this state of things, should you persist in your refusal, you will find that I am as grateful for favors, as regardless of all considerations and consequences in warning honest people against wanton injuries and ¦reckless knavery, however .respectable be its mask — I am respectfully— your most obedient servant — Santangelo." (doc. 13). My consciousness of being in the right, and of having returned to my senator by no means an improper answer, was such that I thought it to be my duty to send a copy of it to the president of the United States (doc. 14), and an other to the president of the Senate (doc 15), explain ing my motives. The Senator was embarrassed. To leave my note unanswered was to acknowledge his wrong. To grant my request was to leave his cov- etousness uncontented. To make an apology was to mortify his pride. To hope for a legal revenge was a folly. To ask a chivalric satisfaction was rather dangerous .... Quid agendum ? A master stroke. He con? ceived the idea of falling on me suddenly, armed with the thunders of an insulting and defamatory letter, hoping that his imperious tone and senatorial respectability would terrify me to death. But, at the same time, having read in the " National Intelligencer" of the first of June that the Mexican certificates were selling in New York at six and a half cents on the dollar, he would now appear generously disposed to grant the delay I had solicited, though in such terms and under such conditions as to keep his word, or not, as might best suit his con venience. Thus by frightening me, on the one hand, with his venera ble outrages, and by depriving me, on the other, of all reason of com plaining of his first refusal, he hoped to shut my mouth without de priving himself of the means of retaining, at all events, the possession of my certificates ! In execution of this truly virtuous and skilful plan, he wrote me a let ter, wherein, to avoid the charge of a wanton attack, and give it the plausible character of a provoked production, he began by making a ma lignant interpretation of these last words of my letter : " Should you persist in your refusal, you will find that I am as grateful for favors, as regardless of all considerations and consequences in warn ing honest people against wanton injuries, and reckless knavery" &c. 43 He then exclaimed in his, letter : " You threaten to warn the public against me, and to falsely charge me with fraud" &c. I had neither spoken of him, of the public, of fraud, nor of any publi cation whatever. The partial indication of honest people did not em brace the public in general, nor is the word knavery the exclusive sy- noym of fraud. By honest people I evidently intended such claimants on Mexico as could become the victims of his avarice, like myself; and to the diction "reckless knavery," no English scholar would have given, in the case, the meaning of fraud, but of a careless disposition to act ungentlemanly. All this did not evince in me the least design of mak ing publications. But, drawing motives of resentment from his own gratuitous interpre tations, the Senator thought himself authorized to indulge in his letter in all manner of outrages, threats and slanders. He began by charging me with falsehoods, without indicating any. Then he represented our past transactions under false colours, disfiguring some facts, deny ing, suppressing and inventing others al pleasure, drawing consequen ces utterly at variance with the premises, and introducing episodes cal culated to show his own bonhomie, although not having the remotest reference to the only point in question, the delay of one month, which I had a right to ask, and he had immorally refused. Then, again, he reproached me with having maliciously given to his purchase of my certificates the name of a loan, whilst I had never made and could not make any intentional or rational distinction between selling with the condition of re-purchasing at a stated period by paying interest, or for feiting the thing sold, and borrowing on pledge, with interest, and the condition of rescuing the thing pledged, also within a stated period, or forfeiting it : a distinction, on the other hand, from which I could _ by no means expect l the least advantage, for nothing could compel him, either as a purchaser or a lender, to return the thing sold or pledged in his possession, without his having previously received all that was due to him, capital and interest. But, he wanted to deduce from this sup posed malicious distinction on my part, that my object was not merely to ask one month of delay, as I did, for the rescue of my certificates ; but to induce him, by calling his purchase a loan, to give me other de- lays/rem month lo month ; as if it were not in his own power to grant, or not, such other hypothetical delays', according to his own will and pleasure. He wanted to insinuate that, by obtaining new delays, I would eitheir claim my certificates " should Mexico furnish funds," or, if not, leave them at his charge ! ! ! The world will be astonished in remarking in the next point of this exposition, that from these punchin- ello-like puns, from this laughable manner of criminating my past, pres ent and future possible or impossible thoughts, the realization of which ought, in all cases, depend entirely upon his own assert, he drew his only and sole reason for accusing me of an attempt to carry out a swindling operation by a device and a complication of crimes wholly new in our country ! ! ! Let us continue, for the present, the narrative of facts. He, thus, for the double purpose of giving to the eyes of the credulous public a colour of honesty to his own dishon esty, and silence all my possible complaints, went on in his letter, overloading me with all manner of insults and slanders. Hence his re- 44 peated imputations oi falsehood ; his designating me as a low, base and depraved man ; his threat to bring me within the spirit of the criminal laws oi the country ; his charging me with an act of open villianny (a word from his own orthography) ; his inferring, from my letter to him, that " my being an old man, & foreigner, a refugee in this country, were (thai is, was) not my only misfortunes (that is, misfortune), but that I had experience in other things less creditable to my honor or veracity ;" his ridiculing " the services I had rendered in Mexico to the United States by defending there her interests, rights and honor" &c. But to this heap of mad infamies, the noble Senator wanted also to add, according to his plan, some proof of generosity. Then, immedi ately after his having exclaimed : " J" will not change the terms upon which I purchased these certificates, and Twill not depart from that de termination ;" and forgetful of his alleged inability to make any change in those terms on account of having " reported the purchase and the terms to the relations of the minors,'' he comes on with this tirade : " I do not believe you intend or desire to pay me twenty-five cents for certificates which nobody will now buy, and which are sold in New York for six and a half cents" — and for this reason, " to test my sinceri ty," he offered the delay I was urging for, under the condition " either to send hinij_ within four days, a written obligation signed by any re sponsible person, as security that I would pay him, not the five per cent., as I boastingly offered, but only two per cent, [for he thought that two per cent, per month was not a usury ! ! !] on the money he had paid me, the certificates to be retained by him, thus giving me an op portunity of purchasing them on the 6th of July next;" or " to sell and deliver me, at once, my certificates, if "I sent him, also within four days, a note payable in bank on the 6th of July next, endorsed so that the bank would engage to pay him the money at that time. " This letter, whilst proposing an arrangement which indispensably required a continuation of my correspondence with him, was terminat ed by this haughty and eccentric order : " This closes all correspondence between us. If you comply with mTb^effi"TdSoc016) y°U C°" *""* anyperson J™ Please to transact To correspond through a person, and not to correspond at all was identically the same thing with our learned Senator ' This letter, this pot-pourri of insults, generosity, arrogance contra. dictions and nonsense, consisting of seven written Das-es sio-nJ <<£™ uel Mc Roberts " and dated th! 4th of June, was S'edfn the after! TTvnn if'fc \M^' Saniangel0 whilst I was taking my stsTa To know whether it contained any thing which reauired ^L^fftL attention, not to disturb unnecessarily my nap she £_£_£??* f t, and prudently concluded that it Loufd not be presented to *__? It was necessary, however, to apprize me of the Irani eTZ j of the conditions under which i? was granted f he Aen tofd me onmyleavmgthe bed-room, that shehad received from tlieSenator a Tr bal message purporting that " I could rescnp rmr „„.¦«. a , fore the 6th of July next, provided tha I sent^mwfvf3 °Yr be" ™»™oMigationlfareinsMe~ km two per cent, on the money I Ld received "oXThe To^d^- 45 mediately return me the certificates if, within four days, I would give him a note payable in bank on the 6th of July for the money I owed" &;c. Quite unsuspecting what was really passing, and finding both the offer kind and the conditions fair, I unhesitatingly adopted the first of them ; and on the following, day, the 6th, supposing that it would be more agreeable to Mc Roberts to receive in ready cash, than in a written obligation, the two per cent, he asked, Isent him, through Mr. E. Plun kett eleven dollars, the amount of the interest, at said rate of 2 per cent. for the momh granted, on the sum of $553,50 which I . had received on my certificates for $2200. Mr. Plunkett was also the bearer of the following polite note addressed by Mad. S. without my knowledge, to the Senator: " Washington, June 6th, 1842— Sir— A note dated the 4th instant, was yesterday, the 5th, at 6 o'clock, P. M. left at the door of my lodging, handed to a little girl of the house, by whom it was handed to me, whilst my husband was taking his usual afternoon nap. From the handwriting of the superscription and the blue ink, I knew the note came from you, I opened it, read it, and finding it unfit to be presented to Mr. Santangelo, I concealed it. But, as it was necessary -that I should inform him of the arrangement you proposed, namely, " either to send you a written obligation signed by any responsible man as secu rity to pay you two per cent, on the money paid to him by you, thus giving him an opportunity of re-purchasing the certificates on the 6th of July next, at what you had paid for them," or " to sell and deliver him the certificates at once, if he will, within four days, send you a note payable in bank on the 6th of July next, endorsed so that the bank will engage to pay yffu the money at that time :" — Therefore I have told .Mr. Santangelo that you had sent me a polite verbal message to that effect, and he, having found your proposal extremely just, now sends you, through Mr. Plunkett, eleven dollars, which is the interest you ask ; thus there is no necessity of any " written obligation," agreeing that if on the 6th of July next he shall not have sent you what you paid for the certificates, you, shall be at liberty to dispose of ihem as your own property— Your most obedient — Mary de A. Santan.gelo — Hon. Samuel Mc RoBERTs"--(doc. 17). This letter has never appeared in any of Mc Roberts's defensive or offensive writings or publications.-. The honorable Senator, always consistent with himself) would neither receive the eleven dollars, mysteriously preferring a " written obligation" to cash, nor the note of Mad. Santangelo; no doubt a refinement of gal lantry on his part, but to me a new provocation when I became ac quainted with it. The note was then read to him by the bearer him self, and His Honor, ex causa scientioz, declared his disbelief of the fact of his letter having been concealed from me. Mad. Santangelo was, therefore, a liar in the eyes of the chivalric Senator. On the same day I procured the " written obligation" so strongly in sisted upon. It was given me by Mr.- Chas. J. Noursg, as follows.: " Washington, June 6th, 1842 — I, Charles J. Nourse have received from Mr. 0. de A. Santangelo eleven dollars, which I promise to pay to Mr. Samuel - Mc Roberts, or order, on the 6th of July 1842, if on or before that time Mr. Santangelo does not re-purchase of Mr. Mc Roberts 48 four Certificates issued under the Convention with Mexico of the 11th of April, 183,9, amounting in all to twenty-two hundred dollars, which in the month of April of the present year, Mr. Santangelo sold to the said Mc Roberts for the sum of five hundred and fifty dollars — Chas. J. Nourse" (doc. 18.) Every body would now believe that, on my having complied, on the same day 6th of June (the time first agreed upon for the release of my Certificates) with the condition under which the Senator had offered the prolongation of that term to the 6th of July, the affair was entirely settled. It was not so. The Senator had now read in the " Index" of the same day 6th of June, the information that the Mexican Certificates were selling in New York at from 55 to 58 cents to the dollar (a), and had accordingly, resolved to break his promise under some pretext or other. The first term of the 6lh of June had already expired; he now wanted to let also pass in vain transactions the four days, within which he had required of me the "written obligation of a responsible person," as a condition sine qua non of the granted delay to the 6th of July ; and then become the absolute possessor of ihe Certificates, throwing on me the blame of not having availed of his magnificent offer ! ! ! Accordingly, when on the 7th of June Mr. Plunkett brought to him the "written obligation" of Mr. Nourse, he found it did not conform with his wishes, and exacted another, wherein Mr. Nourse should de clare that, whether Ire-purchased my Certificates on the 6th of July, or not, Mr. Nourse should always pay him the interest oi two per cent. On the 8th Mr. Nourse had the kindness to sign a second obligation, under the same date as the first one, in the following terms: " Washington, June 6th, 1842 — I have received frym O. de A. San tangelo eleven dollars, which I promise to pay to Mr. Samuel Mc Rob- berts, or order, on the 6th of July, 1842 ; the said sum being a considera tion paid by Mr. Santangelo to Mr. Mc Roberts for the privilege of re purchasing, on or before the 6th of July next, from Mc Roberts four Cer tificates issued under the Mexican treaty of the 11th of April, 1839, amounting to $2200, which were sold in the month of April, 1842 by Mr. Santangelo to Mr. Mc Roberts for the sum of five hundred and fifty- three dollars, sixty-two cents— Chas. J. Nourse — $11 — " (doc. 19). 0= No notice was ever taken by the Senator of these Nourse's obli gations, in any of his writings. On the 9th Mr. Plunkett paid his fourth visit to the Senator, certain that the above second " obligation" of Nourse, of which he was the bearer, and which had been dictated by Mc Roberts himself, would " leave no room for further objections. The Senator, however, was long before prepared to cavil against the compliance with his own engage ment. He began by rudely receiving Mr. Plunkett (in the anti-chamber of the Senate), and then, looking with contempt at the document pre sented to him, would dispatch Mr. Plunkett still more rudely, without expressing any acceptance or opinion whatever on the matter ; and on Mr. Plunkett having asked a receipt of that obligation, he roundly re fused to give any. Still a receipt was indispensable both to evince that I had complied with the condition under which the term of the 6th of (a) This number of the "Index" will be found in mv " Original documents" under the No. 61. 47 July had been granted to me, and that Mr. Plunkett had fulfilled his mission agreeably to my instructions. But, how could the candid Sena tor furnish me with an evidence of his having granted what he never intended to grant? Instead of a receipt, he offered the testimony of a door-keeper, by the name of Bassett, who happened to stand in sight of the contracting parties, and who was as unknown to Mr. Plunkett, as utterly unacquainted with the matter in discussion. Plunkett, under stood the intrigue, retired in disgust, returned the " obligation" to Nourse, and came to declare to me that he would have nothing else to do with Mc Roberts. I likewise took the resolution of forgetting at once his name and my sacrificed Scrip., Whilst things were in this state, I found by a mere chance, on the 21st of June, in a band-box, the letter of the 4th addressed by Mc Rob- etrs to me, concealed by Mad. Santangelo from me, and of which I have related here the outrageous contents. In my anger, more easily to be imagined than expressed, I committed the injustice of reproaching my virtuous wife for an action which I ought to admire. As a consequence of this discovery, I was also apprized of the kind letter written by her to the worthy Senator, and by him so gallantly rejected. From several members of Congress, whose names I shall never make known, I was informed of the decided immorality of my man. I had also known that a horrible expose of his private and public character, principles and acts had been published some time ago by the editor of the Louisville Jour nal (doc. 47) — I had just read in the Weekly New York Herald of the 17th of June (doc. 20) that on the 13th of same month he had been charged with falsehood by one of his colleagues in the Senate, which report he never contradicted. But his letter of the 4th of June show me now in him the assassin of my personal honor and character, and this I had not strength enough to let pass unpunished. Moral suscepti bilities are not equal amongst men. The diversity unavoidably arises from that of tempers, degree of civilization, social rank, education, ex tent of knowledge, as from the various pursuits of life, associations formed, manner and habits contracted &c. The very same insulting epithet, quite indifferent to some, proves highly offensive to others. Honor, for instance, is a nonsensical word with many a man ; it has with certain people but an eventual importance ; and it is to a few priv ileged souls, everything. I was unfortunately born in a class where honor is the most vital element of social life, and lived thirty-four years in another, where honor essentially has, and must have the preference over all the other human passions and interests. I mean to say that I have been thirty-four years a soldier. Had not honor such a value among soldiers, it would be inexplicable how millions of reasonable be ings could remain under the despotic command of one single and not often reasonable being, always ready to encounter, not merely in silent patience, but with the most sanguine alacrity, all sous of sufferings, and even death, in defence of a cause which is not theirs, and with which they are oftentimes utterly unacquainted. A talented and truly upright magistrate should therefore take into serious consideration those diversi ties, to graduate with no less justice than equity, the imputability of those re-actions which, being prompted by defaming and irresistible provocations, should be coolly and carefully sifted and scrutinized under all their excusable and extenuating circumstances and particulars. 48 Samuel Mc Roberts had now struck at my moral character and civil life a deadly blow. There was now no longer question of Mexican scrip, but of wounded honor. But law could not revenge it, for his libellous letter, although confidently shown to all his friends, colleagues and ac quaintances, had not been publicly circulated, nor even printed. My sword could not be resorted to, for he would have infallibly placed my challenge in the hands of a justice. No redress was then possible to me, much less against a man intrenched behind a senatorial bulwark, and relying on powerful protections, lavished, if not on his personal merits, certainly on his political dignity, no matter how he became in vested with it. I then resolved to give myself the satisfaction of in forming him, privately, of my sovereign contempt for his person. In this only view, and by no means to defame him publicly, I wrote him a letter, dated 30th of June, refuting his own defamatory letter, line by line, word by word. My only object, I repeat, was to make him feel his perfect nullity in my eyes, and then condemn myself to an .eternal silence with regard to him. My letter (doc. 21) was forwarded to him at 9 o'clock, A. M. of the above day ; but it was returned to me unsealed, and wrapped in a new cover with a superscription in his own hand writing (doc. 22). This new insult, certainly of the gravest character amongst gentlemen, defeated all my moderate designs, and put a limit to my patience, for everything is limited in this poor world. I then for the first time conceived the idea of publishing that, not wantonly insulting, but merely retaliating letter, and sent it forthwith to the printing office of Col. Force, for its immediate publication. But on the following day, 1st of July, it was returned to me with a note from Mr. Haliday, the foreman of that office, informing me that it was impossi ble for Mr. Force, for a week or two, to put that letter in press (doc. 23 and 29). I then suspended its publication until Mr. Force should have been able to have it executed. Availing of this interval, I started on the 3d of July, for New York, in search" of an opportunity to raise some money on my unfortunate scrip, and of an English co-laborer in a paper which I proposed to edit in Washington, in French and English, under the title of "Veritas," as announced in all the newspapers of that city. I was so far from the idea of publishing my letter to Mc Roberts in New York, that I had left the manuscript among my papers in Washington, as we shall soon see, and I would probably not have pub lished it at all, had not a new and extremely revolting provocation from my indefatigable assailant, carried my indignation to the highest pitch. I arrived in this city on the 5th of July, and on the 8th I received from Mr. Plunkett, under date of the 6th, the following communica tion : " This morning two gentlemen called at the house, and enquired for me. One of them was Governor Fulton, Senator from Arkansas ; the other, whom I do not know, said that he came to enquire, at the re quest of Mr. Mc Roberts, whether the money for the certificates was ready, as this was the 6th of the month, and 'as Mr. Mc Roberts had re ceived a letter from the relations of his wards requesting him to send them the certificates. I answered the person who came that from what had transpired between Mc Roberts and myself, at our last inter view, I was sure that he considered, as well as myself, that the whole affair was at an end, and that, therefore, we had not taken any steps to procure the money. He then left me saying he would tell Mr.'Mc Rob 49 erts what I said— I cannot imagine any reason for such action on the part of Mc Roberts, except it be a desire to show that he has kindly wailed another month, although we were under the impression that the certificates were forfeited immediately after our last attempt to arrange the matter. You, who know the hearts of men better than I do, will be better able to arrive at the true cause of this strange action on the part,of that consummate scoundrel" &c. (doc. 24). This letter bears in itself a full evidence of its correctness. Mr. Plun kett wrote it in Washington the same morning, in which the occurrence had taken place. He could not, therefore, have had time to invent a story upon instructions received from New York. Nor would he have stupidly made a statement at the risk of its being refuted by the testi mony of Governor Fulton, who was present at his colloquy with Beale. We will have, moreover, other shining proofs of the mendacity of the latter, in the 2d Point of this defensive expose. The object of this new manoeuvre, of this fresh offspring of Mc Ro berts' inventive genius, is obvious. He feared the consequences of so many provocations on his part, and especially of his contemptuous re jection of my letter of the 30th of June. He wanted now to premon- ish himself .in time against all possible charges of dishonesty and slan der elicited by himself in his letter of the 4th of that month, and conse quently find witnesses to prove that the final forfeiture of my scrip in his possession was to be attributed, not to any breach of promise on his part, but to my neglect in rescuing it on the 6th of July, the new term granted by his generosity for its redemption. From this quintessence of refined malice, and from the actual inter vention of Beale and Senator Fulton in this business, I was induced to believe that Mc Roberts was in my absence secretly slandering my innocence in justification of his own fraudulent conduct. This last ex citement proved irresistible with me, and determined me to inform, through a suitable publication, both his friends and mine in Wash ington, of the intrigue of which I was the victim. I wrote, then, to Washington to have immediately forwarded to me in New York my original letter of the 30 of June to Mc Roberts, which had been re turned by him" with haughty scorn ; and on my having received it on or about the 13th of July (doc. 44), I sent it to a printer. Hence the appearance of the pamphlet, dated 26th of July, and entitled "A Cir cular to the World," of which I am accused in this prosecution. I proposed in said ''Circular" (p. 1) this question: "Is the honora ble Mc Roberts more honorable than the honorable Mitchell ?" And I solved it (p. 14.) thus: " The world, to whom this Circular is addressed, will easily perceive that, if not for the enormity of the crime, certainly for the refinement of immorality, the honorable Mitchell, lately condemned to the state pris on of New York, is far surpassed by the honorable Mc Roberts, still a Senator of the United States!" (doc. 25). I would insinuate by this that if there had been a member of Con gress in the House of Representatives, guilty of forgery, there could have been an other in the Senate culpable of immorality, of slander prompt ed by avarice. Are Senators impeccable ? Has not a man slandered by a Senator the right of vindicating his own honor ? To come to the solution of the" above question, I inserted in the " Cir- 7 50 cular" three documents : 1st, my letter to Mc Roberts : 2dly, the fesP timony of his having received it and returned it unsealed, under a new cover : 3d, a letter which I addressed, under date of July 16th, to Sena tor Fulton, whom I considered to have been, unknowingly perhaps, a tool of the trick, and whom I entreated " to behave nobly, or at least with much circumspection, in fending his services to a Samuel Mc Roberts" &c. See the " Circular," page 14. A conclusion closed the " Circular," demonstrating that " the root of the shameful inconveniences in question" was only to be found in the more shameful conduct of our Secretary of State, of the Executive, of the gov ernment &c. the whole alleged in defence of the honor and dignity of the American nation (doc. 37). This Circular being destined exclusively to warn Congress, and other individuals in the City of Washington, which had been the scene of the quarrel, against Mc Roberts' impositions, I caused only three hun dred copies of it to be printed (doc. 37), which were almost all sent im mediately, through the mail, to that city. But, was that " Circular to the World" a libel?— false, scandalous, malicious, and defamatory libel as denounced ? To solve this question I shall take for my guide the accusation itself, the very Indictment sworn to by the Grand Jury. I could not be more rigorous contra mea propria comoda. The Indictment begins by seriously stating that I am of a " wicked and malicious mind and disposition." To this gratuitous, uncalled for, calumnious, and truly libellous preliminary, and other perfections of that instrument, I shall have to submit, in the 3d Point ofthese Instruc tions, such objections as will tear it, I hope, to pieces. Let us now pass in review the charges preferred in it. It says : 1st.— That I provoked Samuel Mc Roberts to commit a breach of the peace on the 26th of August, 1842, in this city, with force and arms in of Jul" f " t0 Ae W°rld'" °f the 26th °f thePre^ing month 2d.— That in it I said to Mc Roberts : Ja Ir.wr^ D07 aPPeared in„my eyes to be so eminently mean and dirty that I feared to become polluted by looking at vou " 3d.— That I said to him : **" T^e' flam ai \-1-0ss -0 get a microscope fit to enable me to run fnir %i^r?fghTg lmPereeJ"ib^ insect, with which I have to deal. But the idea of your name being connected, by one of those wor* ly anoroahes for which no man can account, wi h the title of %Z*tZ °f the Tinned States has given me strength enough ^ to overconTe al difficulties. With a Samuel Mc. Roberts half a dozen lashes onTe face would soon settle the question ; but with a Senator thp ;,, i % an august assembly, ? feel the poweTof otSduSe T anfto ?o7low^ rytade0mTnedsa" *" ^ °f ^ SeDate a"d °f the -tion^reSed 4th.— That j. said to him : fac'edTmy -^Z&^^Z^l^ F~ ungenerous and villanous being, and charLd with 2 «lua™ed ™ an reclless knavery, as you were £ # letSthTSl SnTffi has 51 ?vLrisKt0-haTe ^insults taken notice of, until he clears himself of those debasing qualifications, either through a frank apology, or by such means as are pointed out by the laws of chivalry and honor. A knave cannot offend any body." 5th.— That I said to him : " Your jest only proves that you are either a most consummate jack ass, or a designing author of false imputations." 6th.— That I said to him : " Are you not a knave ?" 7th.— That I said to him : " You truly miserable poltroon." 8th.— That I said to him : " And is the respectability of my promises to be questioned by a man, whose offers, promises, engagements, in the very case now in question, have so glaringly turned out to be a heap of the foulest frauds?" 9th.— That I said to him : " Are you a man ? I ask pardon. I thought you were an ourang- outang." 10th.— That I said to him : "Do you understand these words: duty, honor, rights, country, sove reignty, &c. you miserable slave of money, certificates, dollars, cents, interest, and of every thing that is mean, dirty, base, vulgar, villanous, covetous, sordid, and cowardly ?" 11th. — That I said to him : " That an ignoramus who applies in the same phrase to the substan tive United States the verb have in the plural, and the singular posses sive pronoun her ; who is fit only to sweep the stairs of the Senate, and who evinces his abilities to discharge the high duties of his station only by greedily devouring eight dollars per day, is not in need of advice from any body, granted." 12th.— That I said to him : " Millions of dollars would never be preferred by me to the extreme pleasure of proclaiming you to be a dastardly knave .'" 13th.— That, on the 26th of August 1842 (the day of my arrest !) withforoe and arms, I published a letter to one William S. Fulton (the letter was dated the 16th of July and published the 26th of the same month ! ! !) saying : " This Mc Roberts must be one of those suffisans or parvenus, who having succeeded to snatch from the credulity of an ignorant mass of people in their savage abode, an appointment to a high office, fondly believe themselves to be truly endowed with such a high respectability of talents and character, as to compel all men, of all classes and nations, to admire in silence all their thoughts and doings, even their ridiculous presumption, even their criminal insolence (here a sentence is left out in the Indictment]. In a country where mobocracy is less in honor, this Mc Roberts would find himself very happy to clean boots at one dollar per month." 14th. — That, on the 26th of August 1842 (the day of my arrest, again !) with force and arms, I published a certain other libel, saying: " The world to whom this circular is addressed, will easily perceive that, if not for the enormity of the crime, certainly for the refinement of immorality, the honorable Mitchell, lately condemned to the state 52 prison of New York, is far surpassed by the honorable Mc Roberts, still a Senator of the United States" &c. . A proper classification of these/owrfeerc charges will show their true and respective immutability. The 1st 13th and 14th charges accuse me oi provocations -vnthjorce and arms 'under the same date of the 26th of August! On that day I never left my room ; nor did I see any body but the noble emissaries ot Mc Roberts in the afternoon, and the constable and Justice Parker in the night ! Even the person of Mc Roberts was at that period perfectly unknown to me ; I had nevur seen him before. Nor had I ever thought of sending him a challenge, for, I confess, I never considered him fit to measure his sword with mine, and on the contrary I always felt certain that he would have implored the intervention of a magistrate in any such business. Yet, force and arms ! Is not this a joke, a dream ? But, provocations with force and arms. What does this mean ? Is perhaps every deserved or undeserved rebuke through the press a provocation with force and arms ? If so, our country would have become a grand field of battle since the first proclamation of the freedom of the press throughout it. In the 3d point of this writing, however, a suitable comment, will be found on this truly whimsical (if not artful), and not less illegal imputation. Through the 2d, 4th, 6th and 12th charges I am accused to have ap plied the words knave to the person and knavery to the doings of Mc Roberts. True, I shall not deny it. But is not truth given in evidence, according to law ? If it is, I have only to remind the Court of that un interrupted series of subterfuges, as before submitted and proved, through which my accuser succeeded in becoming the absolute possessor of my Scrip. In the next 2d point of these instructions, this truth will be most amply and brightly unfolded. The 3d charge reproaches me with having made a distinction be tween a Mc Roberts, and the Senator Mc Roberts, he owing to my re spect for the " august assembly," of which he was the " living shame," my not having settled all question with him with a lash Was this dutiful distinction a sin ? And was, at all events, that imaginary, nay bombastic and hypothetical, correction to be considered as a too severe* punishment for such real offences as had been offered by Mc Roberts, in his letter of the 4th of June (see page 47), to my personal honor and character ? The 11th charge is grounded on my having qualified the senator as an ignoramus ; and this truth is not merely proved by the fact of his having applied to the substantive United States, in the same phrase, the verb have in the plural, and the singular possessive pronoun her, as says the Indictment; but it results also from many other passages of his writings now before the court, as we shall see. Nor did I ever think that litera ry censure about syntax and orthography should be treated as a breach of the peace, with force and arms, in the United States of America ! The 14th charge accuses me with having presented the " honorable" Mc Roberts as surpassing the " honorable Mitchell, not as to the enor mity of the crime, but as to a refinement of immorality; and on this score, as the difference was doubtless in favor of Mc Roberts, he cannot believe himself injured by it. His immorality on the other hand superabund- 53 antly evinced in this 1st Point of my Instructions to my counsel; but the 2d, 3d and 4th Points following willl say much more on this topic. Finally, the 3d, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, lOih, 11th and 13th charges men tion vague epithets and contemptuous dictions, such as, imperceptible insect, living shame of an august assembly, darling little-one, jackass, a dastardly knave, poltroon, ourang-outang, slave of money, suffisant, par venu, fit to sweep stairs, clean boots &c— The whole of which forms emphatically a bouquet de fleurs when compared to the mortal wound inflicted on my honor and veracity, and other offences of a not lighter caliber, with which I was favored by the dignified Senator in his epistle of the 14th of June. It is indispensable here to make a remark on a certain expression copied in the Indictment from my letter to senator Fulton of the 16th of July, and transcribed in my " Circular to the World." I had said in it : " In a country where mobocracy is less in honor, this McRoberts would find him self veryhappy to clean boots at one dollar per month" — I do not wish to be reproached with having applied the name of mobocracy to our happy democracy. I used those words as they are every day repeated in all the newspapers of the Union, speeches in Congress, and numberless polit ical or philosophical productions from every quarter, and by every class of writers, even the most devoted to our inimitable Institutions. That is but an emphatic common phrase showing a holy aversion to all such popular commotions as turn freedom into licentiousness; and our con tinual mobbish riots, tumultuous elections, charivaries, lynching per formances &c. even in the most polished cities of the empire, justify the correctness of that patriotic clamor, intended to hasten the eradication of the evil which is, however, by no means ascribable to the people themselves or their Institutions, but to neglectful or ignorant adminis trations, under which the most salutary laws are but a dead letter. An other remark of a very different and much more important nature, now presents itself. How happens it that the rabid framers of the in dictment have overlooked several other resentful invectives of mine in my letter to Mc Roberts, not mentioning at all among other things, my ideal spitting in his face, page 8, slapping his left meretricious cheek, page 9, &c. Is this generosity? I must be allowed to answer, no. Such highly outrageous dictions could not be made mention of without making known, at the same time, those which had pro voked them; and this' did not suit the Senator, whose innocence ought to appear unspotted This artful generosity should convince the court of the necessity of a thorough reading of my " Circular to the World," to the Jury, whose religious verdict is to declare my own in nocence, or guilt. But, of the Indictment enough for the present. I have quoted it here for the sole purpose of drawing from the analysis of the charges con tained in it, the demonstration of my " Circular to the World" being not a libel, this being the object of this 1st Point of my Instructions to my counsel. The " Circular is neither false, malicious, scandalous or de famatory, as alleged in the Indictment. It contains but truths, and ev ery truth is proved. No scandal can be produced by a correct and rea soned refutation of scandalous attacks. No malice can be attached to the indispensable and rightful defence of one's honor. No defamation is reasonably censurable when opposed to highly defaming provocations. 54 My counsel will determine, in law, the true characteristics of a libel as contemplated by law. I am writing without a single book before me, not even a good vocabulary. U POINT. In the hypothesis of my " Circular to the World" being libel lous, its legal effects have been, both de jure and de facto, fully destroyed by the accuser himself. Falsehood cannot be justified but by falsehood, nor wrong but by wrong, This is an exemplification of the motto : abyssus abyssum in- vocat ; and this was the course pursued by Samuel Mc Roberts on his receiving my " Circular to the World." He, then, laboring under the par oxysms of a dismal black-choler, consulting but his vindictive passion, but feeling at the same time the superiority secured to him by his Amer ican nativity, senatorial standing and party-protection over his victim, threw himself, d-corps-perdu, regardless of all dangers, in the breach. Fifteen days had already elapsed since the appearance of my " Circu lar to the World" of the 26th of July 1842 (doc. 25), when the Capital of the American Union, was, in my absence, presented with a pamphlet of sixteen pages, headed : " Address of Mr. Mc Roberts of the Senate of the United States, IN REPLY TO A PUBLICATION OF O. DE SANTANGELO." The pamphlet was dated " Washington city, August 9th 1842," and signed: "Samuel Mc Roberts." On its second written page, it was addressed " To the Public;" and on the very title-page the following anonymous placard was affixed : " DC?" We advise the Public to read this Address — they will see, sketched by a MASTER HAND, and proved by the highest evidence, an attempt of Santangelo to carry out a swindling operation, by a device and a complication of crimes wholly new in our country — Mr. Mc Rob erts deserves the thanks of the Public for having exposed one of the MOST INFAMOUS VILLAINS, that we have ever read "of, in our long connexion with the public press."— " Note by the Publisher" [doc. 26]. Who was this publisher ? Ten certificates, lettered from A to J, from printers of the Federal District [doc. 30], show that no such publisher is there to be found. The whole phraseology, and every word of the pla card, are identically the same as those used throughout the pamphlet. On the other hand, who could have become the accomplice of a vile and insane calumniator ? Who else, but himself, could have imagined that he deserved the thanks of the Public for having so wantonly insulted public decency and dignity, and broken public peace ? Who could have qualified a Mc Roberts' hand as MASTER HAND, but himself? And would any body else, but himself, have dared to stamp, without 55 his full assent and consent, sueh a criminal bill on the very title page of his own pamphlet bearing his own signature ? Pshaw ! His as suming on this occasion the anonymous character of the "publisher" of that note at once self-praising and vilely slandering, was but one of his impostures suggested by that timidity which is the inseparable com panion of unjustifiable crime, and at the same time by the malice of in sinuating that he was not my sole defamer. He wished to give him self an ideal colleague in the performance, and this was, no doubt, a master stroke from the master-hand ! The "Address," although published in Washington the 9th of Au gust, did not reach me until the 22d. of that month. The candid Sena tor had it circulated, as secretly as possible, amongst his colleagues in Congress, his friends in the city, his constituents in Illinois, thus wound ing me, and bravely hiding his master-hand. One copy of it was at last obtained from a member of Congress, and mailed in Washington for me in New York, on the 2st of August, by Mr. E. Plunkett [doc. 45], and I successively received from my wife three other copies, coming from other members of Congress. Here is a short account of this noble production. The master hand begins by declaring that my " Circular to the World" was but " a tissue of the most unblushing falsehoods from be ginning to end" — a mere assertion : a common place with dealers in falsehoods. Then, to have powerful allies in the contest, he describes me as " the same fellow who had been libelling Congress, the Executive and other persons, in newspapers, and also in said ' Circular,' in the most vul gar manner." A tare assertion, a common place with trembling im postors. Relating afterwards, in the manner best suiting his own designs, the course of his transaction with me, he states that " not knowing wheth er the guardian (of the wards whose money he said he had employed in the purchase of my certificates) would approve the investment, he volun tarily proposed to re-sell them to me on the 6th of June," &c. as if the disapproval of the guardian could make the re-purchase obligatory for me ! I have already instructed my counsel, in the 1st Point of this writ ing, respecting the manner and the reason why the Senator had limited the term for said re-purchase of the 6th of June, against my instances for a longer term .... An innocent quiproquo. He adds that " on his having received an intimation that I was a Base Man, and to be on his guard, he, to avail all misunderstanding, had reduced the terms of the purchase to writing upon receiving each certificate !" What intimation ? from whom ? When ? The first visit paid to him by Mr. Santangelo and Mr. Plunkett, was a sudden visit ; he did not expect it; his supposed informer could not foresee it ; then, without knowing whether I was a base man, or an Aristides, he ad vanced $50 on a certificate of $200, and delivered a receipt with the obligation of re-selling me that certificate on the 6th of June. Was this the writing made to protect himself against the base man ? Was it not on the contrary, made for my own security ? Nay ; did he not overload my messengers, on their first application to him, with mark of the ut most respect for them and admiration" for my person ? Does not, more over, his note of the, 28th of April, (doc. 6) prove his eagerness to buy 56 my certificates even when not offered to him ? Oh Senator ! Oh tnas- ler-hand ! He subjoins that he found in my letter of the 27th of May (doe. 11) " that hint given to him of my infamous character was verified" — My letter only asked respectfully one month indulgence for the rescue of my certificates, and my only sin had been that instead of saying that he had purchased my certificates, I had said, bone fide, that he had ad vanced me money on them! that is all. I said so, because, as we have already seen (page 38) I could make no distinction between ad vancing money on a pledge to be rescued at a certain period, by paying interest, or to forfeit the thing pledged; and purchasing with a priv ilege to the seller to re-purchase the thing sold, at a stated period, pay ing interest, or to forfeit it — This was the evidence of my infamous character. I oppose to this ridiculous slander the unanimous testimony of all such distinguished persons, as have had occasion to deal with me in Washington [doc. 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 59]— I could refer the Court to what the local news-papers, such as the Independent, the National In telligencer, the Index, the Huntress &c. and others of the District, saM and repeated about my principles and personal character &c. and even to what he, himself, the Senator, had a thousand times said to Mad. Santangelo and Mr. Plunkett [whilst he was discharging his Senatorial functions in acquiring my Mexican Scrip ] about my noble and inde pendent character, and admirable writings ! ! ! The master hand, however, did not copy in his " Address" my above polite letter of the 27th of May. He merely copied his own answer to it [doc. 12], which to a reader uniaformed of the letter to which that answer was returned, ought necessarily appear of insufficient import ance to have justly provoked my subsequent reply of the ] st of June, copies of which I sent to the President of the United States [doc. 14] and to the President of the Senate (doc. 15) — Yet, in his answer, in which he had so brutally and so dishonestly refused the delay to which I had a jusi claim, he had not dared to utter the words falsehoods, base man, infamous character &c — all these kind compliments he after wards imagined when engaged in revenging himself against my unan swerable truths. He now affirms in his " Address," that " he received my said letter of the 1st of June, filled with vulgar epithets, threatening to charge him with fraud before the public, unless he permitted me to violate my con tract ;" that " I had premised to that, that he was a Senator of the United States, supposing that his station would make him adverse to having such a charge made, or to entering into a controversy with an Infamous Man, like me, in the newspapers ; and that said threat might enable me to accomplish my swindling designs ! " But this letter he likewise hid from the public, for, according to his plans, he ought al ways to show only one side of the medal. I have, however, published it myself, explained it, refuted his malignant interpretations (see page 42) ; and certainly not merely a swindling design, but a. full and com plete swindling performance is what the noble and dignified Senator has now to account for before the Court of General Sessions. Here he comes to speak of his famous epistle of the 4th of June (re ceived and concealed by Mad. Santangelo) ; and to put it in honor, and to make that offspring of his genius venerable in the eyes of the fool, he premised to it the following statement : 57 "In the practice of my profession as,a lawyer [!] and holding courts vf justice [!] for near twenty years [!], and among all the devices to swindle and defraud, which I have ever seen unravelled, I have never before witnessed a plan so infamous. Even in my reading of the dark crimes to be found within the prison walls of Mexico and Europe, I have no recollection of having heard of this new mode adopted by this degraded being Santangelo." . ...', In this eloquent bombastic tirade, calculated to amaze, or rather to humbug the bouches Mantes of Gadsby's Hotel, we must now acknowl edge the Unsurpassable power of the master-hand. It is only to be won dered at, that so learned a lawyer, judge, Senator, and reader oi the dark crimes to be found within the prison walls of Mexico and Europe, should not have glanced at the history of the judicial assassinations to be found at the bars of both hemispheres, coolly perpetrated by corrupt, ignorant, superstitious, overbearing, unjust, stupid, cruel, venal and ser vile depositaries of the judiciary power ! After such preliminaries, His Honor copies in toto, in his " Address" hjs above mentioned letter of the 4th of June [doc. 16], in which he had granted [for his own benefit and under conditions that he intended to elude] the delay I had solicited, and at the same time closed his corres pondence with me [see page 44]. On this subject he exclaims in his " Address :" " A day or two afterwards, a worthless fellow, by the name of Eugene Plunkett, who plays understrapper for Santangelo and wrFE, called and said he had a letter from Santangelo's wife. I replied that^I would receive no letters from them (the correspondence being closed !). He (Plunkett) then broke open the letter [doc. 17], and read it, and said that she had received my letter [of the 4th of June], but had concealed it from Santangelo, not thinking it very falitable [new orthography], it would seem, for a man of such delicate feeling, and' that he [Plunkett] was to try and arrange the business — I replied that, as to the letter having been kept from Santangelo, I believed it- to be FALSE " Here we have, before the court and the public, in Mr. Plunkett a worthless fellow, an understrapper, and in Madam Santangelo a liar ! But his letter of the 4th of June, notwithstanding its closing all cor respondence, had opened a new negotiation, and consequently a new correspondence. It intimaied that " I could obtain the delay I had so licited, if I sent him, within four days, a written obligation, signed by any responsible man, as security that I would pay two per cent, on the money I had received [$553,50] on my certificates ; or that I could re ceive them at once, if I sent him, within four days, a note payable in bank on the 6th of July next, endorsed fees . . . ." On my learning this from Mad. Santangelo, who had told me she had received a verbal mes sage ad hpc_ [see page 44], I adopted the first proposition, and accord ingly I sent' to him, on the 6th of June, first the amount of the inter est in cash, and then, on his unaccountably refusing the cash [for this would have proved to him an obligatory bond], the desired written obli gation from Mr. Charles Nourse [doc. 18] ; and on his having found fault also with this obligation, I sent him another as desired by him [doc. 19] ; and finally, on his having grossly and maliciously refused a 8 58 receipt of that instrument, indispensable to secure the fulfilment of his promise, this second negotiation was entirely broken, and my Mexican scrip Was lost [see pages 46 to 47]. Who is the swindler ? The honorable Senator, however, in his " Address" represents this affair under a quite different aspect. Purposely overlooking my full com pliance with his conditions by sending him the written obligation as dictated by himself, he asserts : " He [Plunkett] afterwards called but brought no note lo be placed in bank, by which he could at once receive that scrip ! ! !" What Note ? What Bank ? Had I ever offered a note payable in bank ? Had I not complied with one of the two conditions proposed by him, and left to my option ? Was not this another master piece of impudence from the Master-hand ? Who is the swindler ? But, he adds : " After various Subterfuges [his or mine"] he [Plunkett] brought a note for the interest (Nourse's obligation), and when he finally got one to conform to my offer, he substituted a new condition (what condi tion ?), and that was that, although the note was signed and delivered to him for me, he would retain the possession of it, unless I would sign an obligation [what obligation ?], which he also brought, but which I did not read ... ." And why did he not read it ? Had he read it, he would have found that there was no question of a new condition or obligation whatever, but merely of a receipt of Nourse's obligation ; a receipt which Mr. Plunkett justly solicited in proof both of my hav ing complied with the condition on which I had been granted the delay, and of his having faithfully executed my commission. But the master hand now would sign no receipt at all, to remain at liberty either to re sell, or not, the Mexican scrip, on or before the 6th of July, according to its value at that period, and offered, instead of the receipt, the testimony of a door-keeperbi the Senate, by the name oi Bassett, who had nothing to do in the matter, and with whom, as I already said [page 47], Mr. Plunkett was not acquainted at all ... . Who is the swindler ? The master-hand then introduces in his " Address," the following declaration oi Bassett : " I [Bassett] certify that in June, I think about the 6th or 8th, E. Plunkett came to the room adjoining the Senate chamber, and request ed me to ask Judge Mc Roberts to come out, as he wished to see him— Mr. Mc Roberts came, and they had some conversation about a note [Nourse's obligation], which Plunkett had brought. Plunkett wanjed Judge Mc Roberts to sign some obligation, or receipt, but which he (the Judge) peremptorily refused — Judge Mc Roberts told him that what he wanted was the money, which he had paid for some Mexican Certificates, and he would most cheerfully sell and deliver them to him. Plunkett wanted the time extended to the sixth of July, for Santangelo lo re-purchase them. Mr. Mc Roberts said to Plunkett : " bring your money at that time, all I want is the money, and I shall be glad, very glad, to receive it and deliver you the certificates" — He [the Judge] then returned into the Senate — August 1st, 1842. — Isaac Bassett." This declaration, evidently drawn up by the master-hand, and signed by the complaisant doorkeeper, speaks, however, wholly in favor of Plunkett, so certain is it that the force of truth sooner or later sur- 59 mounts all obstacles, and tears away all masks. Plunkett had, then, according to Bassett, brought to Mc Roberts the obligation of Nourse. . ' ' ' j i ett wanted a receipt Plunkett wanted the time ex tended to the 6th of July for me to re-purchase my certificates. . . Mc Roberts peremptorily refused the receipt Mc Roberts conse quently refused the obligation of Nourse which could not be delivered to him without a receipt' Mc Roberts withdrew therefore, his own offer, broke his own promise, and fraudulently kept my certificates m his possession ! ! ! And could Plunkett rely on his verbal intima tion : " bring your money at that time [the 6th of July], and 1 shall de liver you the certificates ?" Under what warranty was such a promise made ? On the contrary, was not the only fact of that unjustifiable refu sal of the receipt, sufficient to evince his ulterior treacherous designs ? Plunkett understood him, left him, returned to Mr. Nourse his written obligation, and thus all adjustment ended, and my scrip remained for feited ! This occurrence took place on the 9th of June, and then the Senator wanted to justify his deceitful conduct, of which he had reason •to fear the consequences. Hence his subsequent intrigue through Mr. Beale, as related page 48 [see doc. 24, 45, 46]. Regarding my Mexican Certificates as lost, I had forgotten them : I had forgotten Mc Roberts himself; when on the 21st of June, his letter -of the 4th [the one concealed by Mad. Santangelo] fortuitously fell into •my hands {see page 47]— .-The tenor of that defamatory lampoon, in ad dition to the cheat, of which I had been the victim, now awakened in my heart an irresistible indignation. Honor, veracity, moral character, patriotic services &c. all that was to me dearer than life, liberty, or Mexican Scrip &c. all was in that scrawl most contemptuously trampled under foot. Hence my letter of the 30th of June [doc. 21 ], and by him returned unsealed, under a new cover bearing the superscription to me in his own hand- writing [doc. 22], hence my sending it immediately, on the same day to Mr. Force for publication, and receiving the answer of his foreman Mr. Haliday of the following day 1st of July [doc. 23 and ¦29] — hence my starting for New York on the 3d on business, and the surprise made on the 6th, in my absence, by Mr. Beale, in company With Senator Fulton, to Mr. Plunkett in Washington [doc. 24 and 45] — hence my " Circular to the World" of the 26th July, printed in New York, and sent immediately to Washington [doc. 25] — and hence the "Address" of Samuel Mc Roberts of the 9th of August, "in reply to my Publication" [doc. -26]. In reply Was that " Address" really a reply to my " Circular to the World ?" By no means at all. Under the specious word reply, Mc Roberts, far from opposing in the least the refutation made by me in my " Circular to the World," of his defamatory letter of the 4th of June, only reproduced in his " Address" the same falsehoods and ab surdities contained in that letter; and taking no notice at all of my refutations, he endeavoured to cast on roe, with the greatest coolness, his own swindling operations, ot which I had been the victim ; and finally, to give credit to this imposture* and freely to exhale, at the same time, his poisonous revenge, he gravely and magisterially over loaded me with opprobrious epithets and calumnies of the most abom inable character. Was this a reply ? Demonstration. Samuel Mc Roberts, by reproducing in full length in his " Address,'' 60 his letter of the 4th of June, without contradicting any of the refuta tions I had made of it in my " Circular to the world," but foolishly maintained the same ground that he had occupied in that letter, thus implicitly acknowledging the exactness of my refutations, and his un deniable wrong. His cheval de. bataille in his "Address" was the same as in his letter, this : Paged— "His [my] object was to change the sale which he had made to a mere borrowing of money upon a pledge of the certificates, and which would have divested those for whom I made the purchase, of their property in them." Page 12 — " The true reason was they (my agents perhaps) did not intend to pay the money. The certificates had fallen in price ; they would not sell at any price. Santangelo had received more from me for them than any one else would pay — Mexican credit was growing- worse — and Santangelo, when he found that neither by fraud, threats or other subterfuges, could he get the contract changed from a sale of the certificates to a mere borrowing of money upon a pledge of the cer tificates, which was his sole object, he violated his promise to pay the money, and fabricated the falsehood that I had refused to allow him to re-purchase the certificates on the 6th of July, although I had promised to do so." All this trickery in the use of words reduces itself to this : . 1st. — That I intended to qualify as a borrowing oi money the sale which I had made to the Senator,, to divest the wards with whose mo ney he had purchased the certificates, of their property in them : 2dly.' — That, when the certificates had fallen in price, I did not intend to re-purchase them : and when I had not succeeded in changing the sale I had made of them, into a borrowing of money, I violated my promise (what promise?) to re-purchase them, and would make it ap pear (why ?) that he the Senator, had refused me the delay he had promised for re-purchasing them on the 6th of .July ! ! ! This therefore is what constituted my attempt lo carry out a swind ling operation, a device, a complication of crimes wholly new in this country, a most infamous villany, a fraud, an infamous plan, never heard of amongst the jiark crimes to be found within the prison walls oi Mexico and Europe and did this farrago of nonsense come from a distempered brain, or from one of those fits of blind and maniacal Wrath, to which poor misers are but too often subject ? Hoc est videndum. In the 1st point of this defensive plan (page 43) I have fully dispers ed all the clouds, in which the Senator had tried to envelope his badly constructed castle to prove his honest and lawful retention of my scrip ; but, two words more : 1st. — I never insisted upon the sale spoken of being a borrowing, or the borrowing a sale. If eventually I used the phrases : " you advan ced me money" or "I borrowed from you money," instead of: "you bought from me," or "Isold to you fee", it was because I perceived no difference at all between selling a thing with a condition of re-emp- tion within a given time, paying interest, or forfeiting it, and borrowing on pledge with a condition of redeeming it, with interest, at a stated pe riod, or likewise forfeiting it. The forfeiture being in both cases of non- re-emption, or non-redemption, inevitable, no malice could be attached » 61 to my designating the bargain rather as a pledge than a sale ; and conse quently, in my case, no prejudice could result, from the use of either ex pression, to Mc Roberts' wards. 2ndly.— A shining proof of the little importance attached by me to either expression is that I received without the least objection, four re ceipts from Mc Roberts (doc. 3, 4, 5 and 7) wherein he said to have purchased my certificates on condition of re-selling them to me on or before the 6th of June. 3dly.— I merely solicited the prolongation of that term to the 6th of July, and then I could derive no advantage from considering my certifi cates rather as pledged than sold, or rather as sold than pledged. Nor could I oblige him to grant other delays, from month to month, he hav ing my certificates in his possession ; and therefore no fraud, threat or subterfuge could ever enable me to have them back, except by his own consent, without my complying with all the conditions, under which the sale or the loan had been contracted. Swindling was then impossi ble on my part, unless I had attempted to swindle his brain, to cause him to say yes, whilst he was determined to say no. Common sense suffices to understand this. Let us now look into the merits of the quarrel, and we will conclude that " swindling" was Mc Roberts's own object, and that he fully at tained that object through a sublimity of malice acquired, no doubt, from the twenty-years practice " in holding courts as a judge," that is in scru tinizing the " dark crimes" of the unfortunate creatures, who during twenty years were subjected to his infallible sentences. According to our first agreement, I was to rescue (or re-purchase, if you wish) my certificates on the 6th of June, or forfeit them. The short ness of that term was justified by the alleged probability of Congress ad journing by that time, and the then necessity for the speculating law yer — judge— senator to return home to Illinois (see page 38). — But, when in my respectful and touching letter of the 27th of May, (doc. ll) I solicited a prorogation of that term, Congress not adjourning until Au gust or later, he, fearing to lose his prey, tried on the 28th to silence me with a rude and peremptory refusal, not making the least allusion to the postponed adjournment of Congress (doc. 12). My remonstrance of the 1st of June against his ungentlemanly conduct (doc. 13) put him in a perplexity ; but he could not leave it unanswered. without acknowledg ing his wrong. He then sent me, in the afternoon of the 5th, his terrible epistle dated the 4th (doc. 16,) in which he, at the same time overload ed me with insults, and granted the delay so strenuously refused before. How is this? Here is the finesse. The insults were to make me trem ble and the delay had a double object : 1st. by promising it, he prevented me from making, as I would have made, in the evening of 5th or the morning of the 6th, a last effort to find means to rescue my certificates: 2dly he having read in the "National Intelligencer" of the 1st, that the Mexican Certificates were selling at 6 1-2 cents in the dollar (as confessed by himself), his promise of a delay, in such terms as would enable him to keep it or not, would leave him at liberty to re-sell me my certificates or not, as best suited his convenience and interest. We have seen on what conditions the delay was promised in his letter of the 4th, namely : either to have from me within four days, a written obligation of any responsible man, to pay him two per cent. f 62 interest on the sum he had advanced on my scrip, or, also within four days, a note payable in bank of the 6th of July, in which latter case he would deliver me at once the scrip. In both cases, however, he was determined to elude the fulfilment of his promise, and let the four days pass, as the first term of the 6th of June had passed, without depriving himself of the liberty of re-selling, or not, the certificates. We have seen, likewise, how I became acquainted with these promises and con ditions, with out yet knowing the tenor of his insulting letter. We have seen that, when, instead of sending him a written obligation from a third person for the payment of said interest on the 6th of July, I sent him the amount of that interest in ready cash, he mysteriously reject ed it, for had he received it, no door would have remained open to him for new subterfuges. We have seen how I fully complied with the first of the two conditions prescribed by him, how he disregarded the obligations of Mr. Nourse, how he let pass the four days, and how on the 9 th of June he broke all promises and closed all negotiations. I have said also that the cause of this shameful and unexpected breach of faith, was the information which he had received from the " Index" of the 6th of June, that the Mexican Certificates were now selling in New York at from 55 to 68 cents in the dollar (a). I have related the accidental discovery I made on the 21st of his outrageous letter of the 4th, my answer of the 30th, his returning it contemptuously to me, my sending it to a printing office in Washington, the postponment of its publication there, my starting on the 3d of July for New York on busi ness, his new provoking intrigues in my absence, which finally compel led me to have my returned letter printed in a " Circular to the World" in New York for Washington &c. Who is now the swindler ? Who the excellens in arte of swindling ? Man and God will answer : Sam uel Mc Roberts. What will the Court of Sessions say ? Have I not lost my certificates ? Has not Mc Roberts malis artibus preserved them ? Who is the swindler ? But his Address ought to hide his wrong, and this his master hand attempted to do, not through proofs of uprightness which were impossi ble, but by dint of maledictions, imprecations, defamatory calumnies, barefaced falsehoods, and horrors of the blackest nature against my per son, my name, my wife, my honest friend Plunkett, my courage, my rights to republican gratitude and esteem, and even against the honor of (a) — In the printed file of documents at the head of this brochure, the quoted article from the " Index" of the 6th of June is not inserted, for I received a copy of that paper from Washington too late to avail of it before said file was printed. The copy of the " Index" referred to will, therefore, be found in my original doc uments under the No. 61 ; and the quoted article as printed on its second1 page, column first, is the following : "Mexican Scmp. — We hive positive information, from a source too respect- " able to admit of a doubt, that an article' which appeared in the New- York Jour- " nal of Commerce relative to the sale at six and a naif cents on the dollar of some " of the certificates issued under our treaty with Mexico, emanated from sordid " speculators, desirous of depreciating that description of stock, so as to be able " to effect an advantageous purchase ; and that, on the contrary, private sales have " been made from fifty-five to sixty-eight cents on the dollar. We advise all those " whose circumstances will permit them to retain their scrip, not to sacrifice it as "' it is generally asserted among those who have control over matters of this kind, " that the period is not far distant when they will be made worth their full value." 63 the Spanish nation, with which I have nothing to do, and even the whole class of refugees in this hospitable land, favoring them with the title of Ukllons [a proficiency in orthography]. Let us see some of his legal, judicial ana.Senatorial gentillesses. 1st — On the 6th of July I was in New York. On that very day Mr. flunkett received in Washington the visit of the messengers of Mc Rob erts, Messrs. Beale and Fulton, and in date of the same day he informed me,, through the mail, of the object and the result of that visit. The honest senator, however, asserts in his "Address" that the statement of Plunkett was concerted with me, thus making me present, on the same day 6th of June, both in New York and in Washington, and he calls that statement " a direct, wilful and deliberate lie." He quotes then, in support of this laughable anachronism or omni-presence, the testimony of Beale. He and Beale were both in Washington On which side then is the concert presumable ? 2dly. — He advances that " I did not want to rescue my certificates on account of their low price." And who or what could oblige me to res cue them ? Was I not at liberty to rescue them or to forfeit them ? Had I ever signed any obligation, engagement or promise whatever to re-purchase them? I only wanted the delay of one month to recover them if possible. To obtain this delay all my efforts were precisely di rected, offering whatever interest. Could I make such efforts and of fers to get a thing I did not want ?" Is this the logic of a lawyer, a judge, a senator, a master-hand ? 3dly. He produces in his " Address" an answer of Mr. Aaron Leg- gett to his enquiry as to the value of Hhe Mexican Certificates in New- York. Leggett states that on the 30th of May he was offered 6 1-2 cents on the dollar. Mc Roberts confesses to have read this information in the " National Intelligencer" of the 1st of June, and this had deter mined him to promise me in his insulting letter of the 4th, the delay which he had before so stubbornly refused. Leggett's note was, there fore, but a confirmation of his intrigue, and he did not perceive that. He carefully abstained, however, from mentioning the fact reported by the " Index" of the 6th, that said Mexican Certificates were selling in New York at from 55 to 68 cents on the dollar (doc. 42), which report caused him to break his promise of the 4th : yet he received the " In dex" daily. 4th. — I had stated in my " Circular to the World" that on the 13th of June he had been charged with falsehood by one of his colleagues in the Senate. I had copied this intelligence from the Weekly Herald of New York of the 18th (doc. 20). No body is ignorant of the im mense circulation of this paper, especially in Washington and more es pecially in both houses of Congress. He had never complained of it. But he was pleased to make me the wilful author of it charging me with falsehopd and using the senatorial epithets of " low, base, infa mous scoundrel" — In proof of this he copies in his address an answer returned by senators King and Young to his request on the subject, af firming that that statement, by whoever made, was utterly untrue. Why did he not, therefore, apply those dignified qualifications to the Herald ? Because he feared not to find it palitable. 5th.— Then, to show how well informed he was of my person, he designates me in his " Address" as a " dastardly and cowardly old span- 64 iard ! ! !" Was this whimsical sally excogitated to insult; the poor Spanish nation, with which I had;nothing to do, or to evince his geo graphical knowledge by supposing Italy to be a province of Spain ? 6th.— He then declares a formidable war to my name (Santangelo) qualifying it to be ,a " putrid stench"— Whoever knows me, knows likewise that my family name is " de Attellis," and that " Santangelo" is a town (in the province of Molise in the kingdom of Naples),' whence I derived my former title oi marquis, which I exchanged, eighteen years ago, for the nobler and more glorious title of American Citizen; Is ev ery name beginning by Santa or Saint, in the opinion of the high-mind ed senator, a putrid stench ? Rave not both worlds, the United States not excepted, numberless towns, cities, villages, streets, country-seats, islands, gulfs, inns, taverns, hotels, rivers, theatres, hospitals, churches,- families &c, whose names are preceded by the adjective "Saint?" But judge Mc Robers has judged the whole to be a. putrid stench; and this in reply to my " Circular to the World" ! ! ! 7th.— Here he sounds the tocsin to call down on my head the fury of seventeen millions af Americans, telling them that I have slandered the government and the people of the United States, by applying " to the principal executive officers" such epithets as we could only expect to eminate (on a par with palitable), from a brothel, such as "fools," "quacks &c." And in another part of the "Address" he frankly charges me with having said that the " United States trembles at the sight of its own shadow" — This I had said not of the United States, but of her Government in defence of her national honor. This I had proved in sundry publications, and I confirm it now and forever. But the Sen ator in his twenty years practice as a lawyer and a judge, had learned that government and nation are identically the same thing ! and thence he concludes : " His charge of cowardice against the United States proves him to be not only a liar, but a traitor." The charge being a calumny, who is the liar ? And has the Senator learned from the Art. 3. Sect. 3. of our Constitution, the meaning of the word trai tor? Miserable ! 8th- — The athlete now enters the arena, lowers his visor, and chal lenges me au combat. He baptizes me a coward ! ! ! " This hero, he says, of scurrilous pamphlets never makes such a call (a call on whom ?) as would put his courage to the test ! — it is a pity that such chivalry should bolt before it reaches the sticking point — there would be danger in such rashness! — so he pockets the insults and revenges himself by telling lies ! — a wretch who announced himself to be seventy years old, and kept himself concealed in close quarters while he was in Washington, to shield himself (from what his guilty conscience told him he deserv ed) the cowhide— he has kept such close quarters as not to be seen either by myself ! ! ! (who ?) or any one of those he has been slander ing — [who?]. He sends his wife about town to transact business, and she reported him sick— a dastard who had ran off to New York, and published his slunders-uoon myself (who ?) and other individuals ( who ?), and sent them back through the mail &c." — Diable! ..Was I nof in Washington when I sent him, in person, my original letter of the 30th of June, by him unsealed, consequently read, and silently returned. ? Was I not in Washington when, on the same day I sent that letter to to the printer ? Had I not left it in Washington on my starting for 65 New York* T^fh^ n°t,'.himself> comPeUed me to have it printed in WaThinJnn 7™*' hlsmsTelf cowardly published his « Address" in dWES.t mK iSmCe Vr Had he Mt' after the laPse of seventeen days brought me to law in New York, most cowardly fearing the con sequences of that proditory publication i.-Diable ! Is not such a bravo the same bravo who desired me to make a call to put my courage to ike test ?— who reproaches me with pocketing his insults .... thus implicity confessing to have been my assaulter f-who seeking for me in Washington with a senatorial cowhide in his hand, found me conced ed m close quarters, namely, living in a boarding house which was open day and night cuique de populo in the most central and conspic uous part of the city ?— who now teaches the public that retirement in literary occupations is cowardice ; that to be sick is a crime , that a wife who reports the sickness of her husband is a liar; that a lady who, instead of losing the day in reading novels, strumming on a piano, or curling her borrowed hair, assists her old and sick husband in his neces sities, is a despicable vagrant " about town"— Diable ! truly the mas ter-hand is not one of those paltrv fellows, of whom a philosopher would say: '•' Non mi euro di lor, ma guarda e passo." But, jest apart. It is not before the Court of General Sessions that I have to unravel proofs of courage: suffice it to say that the cowhide- senator, who has so bravely brought me to law, has denounced me a coward, whilst in law I am indicted by a Grand Jury for having provok ed the pacific Senator to a breach of the peace with force and arms [doc. 34] ! ! ! Who speaks the truth ? Hoc est videndvm. 9th. — " Other men, my honorable libeller adds, who have been inces santly assailed and libelled by this degraded being, have not, in conse quence of his infamous character, condescended to notice him" — Other men What men ? This is the language rather of Tropho- nius than of a Senator of the United States from Illinois. Who are those men ? how assailed ? why libelled ? — and does the silence of the libel led always prove the infamous character of the libeller ? " Chi tace afferma" is the proverb of my ex-country. Let those hypothetical men speak, and then we shall see who is right. 10. — Here is the last bomb from the battery : the Senator majes tically exclaims : " He has received this notice at my hands (the master-hand) that the Public may see what schemes those fellons (sores !), who have been expelled from other countries, can resort to here, to defraud and swindle and to libel the government as well as individuals ; and to make an ex ample of a detested villain, whose insignificance shall not be a mantle to protect him from merited chastisement — Samuel Mc Roberts. Washington City, August 9, 1842." The lawgiver virtually proposes here the repeal of our laws of natu ralization, the non-admission of foreigners, nay two legislations, the one for natives, the other for foreigners— nay a crusade or a Saint- Barthelemi against all foreigners, all fellons (sores !). I am certain ly a sore (fellon) to the Senator, designated as one " expelled from other countries ;" charged with haying come here " to defraud, to swindle, 9 to libel the government and other persons;" to be a " detested villam .- and then the worthy lawgiver proposes the enactment oi an Act for chastising insignificance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a digression— to be taken notice of, or not, ad libitum. I am told by a Senator of the United States, in public, before the Na tion, before Congress, before a Court of Justice, to have been expelled from other countries, to have come here to defraud, swindle, libel the government &c, and these reproaches are accompanied with the titles of base, coward, villain, infamous, traitor, fellon &c. This I must regard as an attempt to blacken before the world at once my name, my family, my origin, my education, and my whole life both in Ameri ca and Europe. The Court of General Sessions and the American peo ple must now either believe me as depicted by the Senator, or the Senator sach as he really is, the vilest, the foulest of calumniators. A few words, therefore, I must be allowed in support of my natural and social rights. This is one of the cases, in which honor must not be im molated to a misunderstood modesty. Nobody here is obliged to believe, nor authorized to know, who I was, how I lived during fifty years in Europe. I shall not unfold, then, before the Court and America such numberless irrefragable proofs, which are actually in my possession, as might bury my Honorable de tractor in an abyss of scorn and everlasting infamy. The Consul Gen eral of my native country, at present in this city, has already told the Senator who I am, what brought me, eighteen years ago, to these shores, and since when I have been honorably recalled home by the crowned philantrophist who is now making the felicity of the Two-Sici lies, [doc. 51 and 52] — The motives of my still preferring to live, in obscurity, amongst freemen to the splendor of a royal court, are I trust, not unknown to those who know my personal character and principles. Neither shall I take the trouble of troubling others with idle recitals about my sacrificing titles, riches, distinctions and privileges of the most eminent order on the altar of Liberty, nor my long services ren dered to this goddess in Italy, France and Spain since 1796, when at the age of 22 I was Secretary of the Lombard Legation near the " Di- rectoir executif " of France ; nor about my 34 years of military services, 10 truly of glorious campaigns, three dangerous wounds, and chivalric decorations bought with my blood on the field of battle, and honorable mention of my soldier-like conduct in several bulletins of the grand-ar mies, whose glories I had the honor to share. Nor shall I say a single word about my military, political and philosophical works and periodi cals in behalf of the rights of mankind, even in times and places where a single word could cause the loss of my head, nor about my four emi grations, eight imprisonments, two capital sentences, and numerous af- fairer d'honneur, either as a patriot, a free-mason, a carbonari, or a man of honor &c. but always in defence of the sovereignty of the people. I shall likewise pass in silence the enlistment of my name among the members of many illustrious scientific societies, and the marks of benev olence received from liberal sovereigns and queens regent, sovereign republican corporations, and a host of renowned diplomatists and others 67 rire^nuL'tio^' TT HP™? &H even in n° few occasions, from en- ™LT ¦ ™U h*v.e here' for the first time in my long life, the fflnl V?m£' *e "^P6"1?61106. ^e impudence, the foolishness of ad- f*," i fg ' T^i?Bln^^Jr SUCCESS has P« me at an immense dis tance from William Tell, Washington, La Fayette, John Tyler Dan iel Webster &c.,my services, sufferings, disinterestedness, losses, con stancy, dangers, firmness, and true and total self-abnegation, have pla ced at an enormous distance from me many of the heroes of the pre sent age, with the exception, however, of Samuel Mc Roberts, the Se nator from Illinois. Let me forget Europe. But I have a right, and I must avail of it, highly to give the lie to whomsoever may dare to calumniate my life in America. Here I am to snow my forehead to this land of my choice, to this country of my adop tion, here where truth can easily be known, and imposition unmasked. Eighteen years residence and of unspotten conduct in this quarter of the globe, have not convinced a Mc Roberts that no such charges of fraud, swindling, felony, treason, libelling the government &c. were to be pre ferred by a gentleman and a Senator against an honest citizen for the only crime of having tried, although in vainrto defend his purse against vile rapacity. What, in the name of God, have I ever done in America? Scarcely landed, in May 1824, from the U. S. frigate Constitution, in New York, I went to declare before the Marine Court my intention of becoming an American citizen, as I did after five years experiment (doc. 60), I placed, through the recommendations of Count Survilliers, my ex- King, an only son in the Counting-House of Messrs. Leroy, Bayard & Co., and I opened a course of commercial sciences through a Prospectus raisonne (doc. 53), bearing as references the names of twelve distinguish ed houses, and of which the Atlantic Magazine, the Statesman, the New York American &c. made here the highest encomiums. I went in 1825 to install my son in an English Mining Company, directed by Chev. Rivafinoli, in Mexico, where finding the United States cursed, her citi zens insulted, her rights trampled upon, her minister (Poinsett) calum niated and threatened, I advocated, in a work on the " Congress of Pa- nama"(doc. 54) the cause of my adopted country, without offending in the least her enemies there, and I was banished by a corrupt ministry against the will of the whole Mexican nation, which rose en masse against its government and threatened its existence. Insulted by its " Gaceta," ruined in my properiy by its agents, I went to embark at Veracruz un der escort, and my adored only son, who renounced a salary of $3000 per annnm to follow his old and unfortunate parent, caught the yellow fever in that port, and found a watery grave in the gulf. I labored nine months under insanity caused by that inestimable loss. I was introduced to president Adams, secretary Clay, John Seargent, Duponceaux, Cary and Lea &e. in Philadelphia, where I married an accomplished lady of Lancaster, and afterwards established in New York a splendid Boarding School for ladies, and select evening classes for gentlemen, and in the cousre of five years had thirteen hundred pupils, amongst whom, I am happy to record several members of the family of Kent, two Slosson's,a daughter of Judge Hammond, &c. I received there the visits of Gover nor Clinton and Dr. Mitchell, with whom I became acquainted at the Holland Lodge No. 16 (of which I was a member), of J. R. Poinsett, on his returning from Mexico, and of all the distinguished 68 Mexicans, who repaired to this city, such as Zavala, Tornel, Megia, Barragan, Basadre, Basave and -sons, Salgado with his family ol three ladies, Hernandez, Ortiz, Almonte, Pedraza, Negrete (an ex iled general from Mexico), the consul Obregon, &c. In 1832, the cholera dispersed the members of my Institute ; and being recalled to Mexico, where I was promised by her new administrators, an indemni ty for the distressing4ujuries I had endured in 1826, 1 there found my old friend Santa Anna, at the head of the Capuchins, nobles, escoceses, cen tralists &c. I opened then, an academy for ladies, which in a few months became the model of all similar institutions in the country, and commenced editing the semi-weekly literary periodical '' El Correo At- Iantico ;" but I would neither praise nor censure Santa Anna, and he be came my enemy. I advocated, against the slanders of various editors, the innocence of the American colonists of Texas, and the honor of our government, accused of promoting their insurrection, to possess it self with that portion of the Mexican dominions [doc. 35]; and then banished again in 1835, despoiled, robbed, losing $6000 per annum from my school, and as much from my paper. I took refuge in New Orleans. I established immediately in that city another Institution, and instruct ed nearly 800 youth in less than five years, continued my " Correo At- lantico" in defence of Texas, whose Congress made me a gift of 4605 acres of land, and gave to the militia of that state a volunteer company, called " The Mount Vernon Musketeers [doc. 56 and 59]. But, in 1840, obliged by our Convention with Mexico, to go and lay my claims upon Mexico before a Board established in Washington, I repaired there with my family, and suffered immense prejudices both from my removal from New Orleans, and my struggles in Washington against all sorts of oppres sion. Yet I do not know of having any enemy there but the enigmatic Tyler and Webster, highly interested in forcing the claimants on Mexico to sell their awarded credits against that country, at a few cents on the dollar ; and I shall always remember with astonishment, that in the same city and at the same period, that a Senator from Illinois, " receiv ed an intimation that I was a base man," numerous and distinguish ed members of the " National Institution for the promotion of Science" there established, honored my insignificance by unanimously enrolling my puTRiD-sTENCH-name in their illustrious catalogue [doc. 57 and 58]. I was ultimately brought up as a criminal by whom ? by a Mc Roberts (!!!) before the Court of General Sessions in this city ! (page 35). This has been my defrauding, my swindling in America ; and myjust complaints against a couple of soulless members of our administration, who were sacrificing our own citizens to their respectful regard for Mexico, my libels on the government ! Yet I never was an office-seeker, nor an in triguer at the polls ! I never received or asked a favor ! I never, du ring 18 years of labor and honor, appeared before a criminal court of justice in this country. I challenge the universe to deny this ; and I condemn Samuel Mo Roberts to bear stamped on his forehead the word CALUMNIATOR, nisi contrarium probeiur But let us have proofs, not words. On my receiving, on the 22d of August, in New York, the above briefly analyzed " Address" mailed in Washington the preceding day, 69 21st, by Mr Plunkett [doc. 45], I prepared for a suitable counter-reply, and published en attendant on the 26th, the following advertisement " TO ALL MEN. " A pamphlet has made its appearance in the city of Washington un- ' ?Ter.the tltle of 'Address of Mr. Mc Roberts of the Senate of the ' United States, in reply to a Publication of 0. de Santangelo.'— To " r a/16 1S lmmediate'y subjoined, under the anonymous designation " °.f ' Nole ty the Publisher,' a calumnious denunciation, charging pub- ¦" hcly ' Santangelo' with defaming crimes ' wholly new in our coun- " try ... . ! ! !' On the second printed page of the pamphlet, the < Ad- " dress' appears made ' To the Public' In his Address to the Public " Mc Roberts bravely involves Madame Santangelo, a perfect model " of all social and domestic virtues, and Mr. E. Plunkett, a youth of 24 " years of age, whose talents, morals, manners, point of honor and patri- " otism would command the respect of the universe. The world will " now be presented (in a document, which shall be sent to-morrow or " next day, to the printer) with a full incontrovertible evidence of " Samuel Mc Roberts and his absconding ' Publisher,' being, if not two " furious madmen, or mad desperadoes, incontestably a couple of bare- " faced impostors, abject ruffians, cowardly felons (not fellons) ignorant " slaves, exhibiting in their hideous persons such a complication of re- " fined malice, wanton iniquity, perverse ribaldry, meretricious impu- " dence, moral corruption, and such an example of open rebellion to all " natural and social obligations, principles of common honesty, and feel- " ings of self-respect, that scarcely any thing approaching their hellish " character could ever be found, by the most diligent peruser, in the an- " nals of human wickedness, or the criminal records of all ancient and " modern nations. — I shall support, under oath, this affirmation before " any court of justice, or even, if called upon for it, sword in hand, re- " gardless of all consequences. Deus meumque jus is my first motto; " preferring death to infamy, is, always was, and shall always be, the " second. — Orazio de Attellis Santangelo. — New York, August 26, " 1842." This advertisement had scarcely been published in the morning of the 26th oi August, when in the afternoon I received the visit of Messrs. Rogers and Bell, and in the night that of constable Smith. The promised refutation of the " Address" was then suspended, and I be came a prisoner under bail. r£7" The consequence which I intend to draw from these premises, is by no means a right to have the " Address" of Mc Roberts taken at present by the Court of Sessions into consideration as a criminal deed to operate in this trial so as to subject him to the penalty of the law against libels. He is neither accused, nor formally indicted. But his "Address" is here exhibited merely as a legal defensive document, as an additional evidence proving the following facts : 1st. That every statement, every word contained in my " Circular to the World," about the deceptions and the character of Samuel Mc Roberts, is true, exact, correct, proved, incontestable, and consequently that said " Circular" cannot be legally qualified as libellous. 70 2dly. That the Indictment in this case being grounded on error, and highly prejudicial both as to the form and the merits of the process, must be annulled. 3dly. That the action instituted by the complainant before the Court of Sessions having been long preceded by a private revenge on his part far more offensive than the offence he pretends to have received, cannot be admitted in law, nor consequently can the State of New York derive from it, from a nullity, from a fact not lawfully a subject for any judi cial inquest, an offence to her peace or dignity, and a right of reveng ing it in law. But before coming to these demonstrations, I think it essential to prove the fact of said Mc Roberts being the true author of that " Address ;" for, as no person can be compelled, according to our Constitution, to be a witness against himself, he could evade the charge. Conviction is, therefore, indispensable, and here are its elements. Samuel Mc Roberts is the author of the " Address," 1. — Because none can reasonably have had the interest, or the mad ness, of producing such a writing to the public. 2. — The " Address" bears his signature, and he has never repudiated it as false. 3. — The " Address" contains facts and transactions, which at the time of its publication were known solely to him and Santangelo, who would certainly not have libelled himself. 4. — The " Address," page 4, contains an obligation signed by Mc Ro berts, and corresponding with its original of his own hand writing, at present in the possession of Santangelo (doc. 7). 5. — The " Address," page 4 and 5, contains a letter signed by Mc Roberts, and corresponding with its original in the possession of San tangelo (doc. 12). 6. — The " Address" contains, page 6 to 10, the letter of seven writ ten pages, dated June 4th, 1842, whose original, wholly written and signed by Mc Roberts, is in the possession of Santangelo (doc. 16). 7. — The " Address," page 10, speaks of a letter addressed by Mad. Santangelo to Mc Roberts, dated June 6tb, 1842, a fact known to Mc Roberts alone, a certified copy of which letter is in the possession of Santangelo (doc. 17). 8. — The " Address," page 11 to 12, contains a certificate of Isaac Bassett, which, from its tenor, cannot have been delivered but at the re quest of Mc Roberts. 9. — The "Address," page 12, relates a commission given by Mc Ro berts to a Mr. Beale and Senator Fulton, which appears, page 16, from a declaration of Beale, delivered at the request of Mc Roberts. 10.— The " Address," page 13, contains a note addressed by Aaron Leggett to Mc Roberts, in answer to certain enquiries of the latter. Leggett can be found at No. 412 Pearl street. 11.— The " Address," page 15, contains a note addressed by Sena tors Young and King to Mc Roberts, in answer to a note of the lat ter. 12.— The " Address," page 16, contains the above mentioned state- 71 rouSte sst'sssss6' that he made !t in behaif> atid tb]3^en,T,?aT appearance,, and even to summon, him to appear, before them, if necessary flSftpi the -interest of the law. LJnder this impression;, I attempted t$K? hearing before the Grand Jury of September last by addressing ifolhe District Attorney, .and.the Grand Jurors Mauran, foreman^orews and Lawrence, the, following Jipes,: . ;".' ¦ ."Should the Grao,d Jury,„in their high justice, deign. to, grant m'p, a ^hearing, tJiey;WQuld easily perceive, , that, first violently tfrpvaked, f thrawgb abetter of, the 4th of June, by. Mr., Mc.ftoberts; then;publicTy «¦ assailed i by him, through a.pamphlet of the, 9th. of August,' containing V not merely injurious and vague epithets, but defamatory and utterly " calumnious imputations, of crimes," wholly, NEW in this cquntry.j" '.'uand then again, maliciously and;, atrociously brought,by kimifo fguh#a. "the 26th of the same month to avoid, himself; a judicial, jprosepujtion, ?,€¦• could reasonably 'expect that "no true bill',' wquld now;, l?a found '^against me, or it ought to be;found both, against the accuse^' and tfe H accuser,. ','i,: .. j. ; ,,,,,, ., , ,'¦.-¦., ' ,',",.' i My demand was not granted, nor answered, ,Yet ,1 cppld i^y^grpv;- eds> nisi only itbe waat.of all, legal action in my accuser,, bu,t ajsp ;ti)e ab- scdnteJwanitjof all tegal, jurisdiction in the State, of New Yofk^'jo^whig^ the foHffwdngj fourth; andjlast'Poin^of.these ,'f, Instrucjtipns .to;my:Coun- sel>' wilLexMhit ithfeimost mcohtrovertible.dempnstra,tiqrj!., ,T#e$$rue bill" was then found} on .the ;7th pfSgptember, anid-,thie;,!todiptnienj; spnt to the Court of General Sessions ! Postponement of the Trial. Senator Mc Roberts was now anxious to quit New. York as quickly as possible, not less from hisiipipaf ien#e ;to return to his constituents in Illinois singing the hymn of victory over ~liis victim, than because, Con gress having adjourned on the 1st of September, he did not feel al- itftgeWer-1 salfean this city against the^assible result of his, ; own rcaluM- jifous.ljbel, th\e ,',\ Aidless.!' He endeayor^d. therefore! to ,have me tried by the Court of General Sessions immediately. '.'His 'counsel' grounded the/'reasbfi 'for such' an extraordinary despatch' chiefly' 'tin the fancied fact that the State of Illinois was "literally inundajed with; iny li bei, the " Circular to the World;" the which was published in the news papers: of this city (ddci 49). My affidavit! proved, h,owever,-,the neces sity of -the postponement of the trial until.the November term of the Court -<(upe;3S)i This terra did not smt thergenaipr,|,GqngresS;Was not,tp meet again; before December,' and he found it iincpnxenient for him -to :repair:again to New York in November,, that, iis, rwh,en, - hi§;first eagerness, for the December term, and the unsuspecting court granted ,it.f . This was, perhaps, therfirstinstanceof aiionger postponement, oftri- al Being; granted than was solicited': an, unexampled generosity,, which by favouring, the intrigues^ and the impunity of a calumniator, pref- longedthe imprisonment of his'Victim one month.., 'I leave .tjhis episode ofthed!ramatothescrutiiiizjngiSB»i«niofthecourt. , ¦ .,,-,\ , •> i , ¦..-. , .S'.,V..'. 11 ' : : :. u.. 82 Deposition of Johnson K. Rogers. This was another surprising performance. Johnson K. Rogers was the only witness for the prosecution, presented by the accusing Senator. Oh his -testimony was the action of the State of New York, in her as sumed character oi plaintiff, determined. On his deposition the whole procedure rested, and the trial was to be grounded. But it was pru dent for the accuser to keep his mendacious tool at a distance from the court, when my case shall be called up in public debate ; and, at the same time, it was convenient to have that witness cross-examined at a peribd When my counsel could have not become fully acquainted with the part he had taken in the affair, to interrogate bim on all its particu lars. My counsel was summoned to appear on the 10th of September at the office of the District Atttorney, in whose presence Mr. Rogers made his deposition and was cross-examined, " his deposition to be read, by agreement of the parties, as evidence, upon the trial of the case, subject to all legal exceptions &c." [doc. 36]. The clause " by agreement of the parties" was intended, it seems, to throw on me the consequences of that, premature examination, whilst neither had my counsel had the time to consult me, nor had I had that of thinking of it. So that the act was altogether a lawless surprise, on which I would call ' the most serious attention of the court. In fact, the deposition and cross- examination of Rogers were uot only defective and incomplete, but neither Was the whole truth, hof the pure truth told in them, as we shall See in' the following 4th Point of these " Instructions." 4th Point. The State of New York has to avenge no offence whatever, on my part, to her peace or dignity, and consequently has no le gal jurisdiction in the matter, my arrest having been but a false imprisonment. I have demonstrated, in the 2d Point of these Instructions to my coun sel, that the State of New York could not, independently from the action, lawful or lawless, of the original complainant Mc Roberts, institute a pro cedure agairist me as his libeller, and that the action of the complain ant, having proved lawless and consequently null, had left no room for kction in the case on the part of the State of New York. We will now see that, eVen in the supposition of the State of New York making the action, which' the Complainant had not, her own, and of exercising it against me as distributor within her limits of a pamphlet offensive to her peace and dignity, the only fact of this distribution not existing, her jurisdiction could hot be exercised but by an abuse of power. This question being merely legal, the Court of Errors should be consulted in case of it being solved by the Court of Sessions in an unfavorable way. We have seen page 34, that a libel, properly so called, is but a non entity before the law, unless it be propagated. To write or print a speech, 83 a law, a novel, a sermon, a poem, or any literary or political work what- ev.fr.' wilhput making it known, is doing nothing, and certainly ex nthilo nihil fit. No matter how wicked a production is, or how numerous its copies, printed or manuscript, are, it cannot fall under the censure of any law, except when those copies have been made use of, through their dis tribution or circulation, for lawless purposes. For the same reason the place where a real or supposed libel has been printed, but hot propagated, cannot determine any judicial jurisdiction against the author, and much less in a country where the press is free, and; no previous censure is decreed or permitted. Hence, if only the lawless use of an offensive writing can constitute the crime, the laws only of the country where the- lawless use of it has been made, may dis play their sway in the matter. Indeed, it is not the judge of the coun try where the dagger has been manufactured, but the judge) withih whose territorial jurisdiction the murder has been perpetrated, that can rightly take cognizance of the offence. : Scarcely three hundred copies of my " Circular to the World" were printed in New York (doc. 37), and they were almost all sent immedi ately to Washington. Not one copy of it had yet been distributed in this city or State of New York, when, in the afternoon of the 26th of August last, two unknown persons called on me at Delmonico's hotel soliciting some copies of said " Circular," offering to pay for them, and expressing their design to send them to their friends in the State 6f GeoSgia. One of them, who said they were inhabitants of iliAt State, afterwards proved to be a Mr. Rogers, an intimate friend of Senator Mc Roberts, in whose company he had just repaired here from Washing ton, as confessed by himself in his deposition (doc. 36) ; and the other was afterwards ascertained to be a Mr.' Bell, brought by the former in his company to witness, perhaps unknowingly,' his insidious interview with me. This Bell I also supposed to be from Georgia, as Rogers al ways spoke in the plural ;' but ne is now known to be a printer in this • city. On my answering that I only had a few copies of the pamphlet, and that it was not for sale, as it had been written exclusively for the city of Washington, where my honor had been violently assailed by a Mr. Mc Roberts, the soi-disant inhabitant of Georgia asked whether he could get a number of copies at the printer's office if the forms of the printed pages were not yet undone ; which fact, concealed by the hon est Rogers in his deposition,' can be testified by his companion Bell — And when I answered in the negative, he insisted upon having at least one or two copies of the few I had in my possession ; to which I ac ceded, under the impression that both of those visitors were from Geor gia and desirous to carry or send the pamphlet to their friends there. This last statement is fully confessed by Rogers himself in his cross examination