thus the matter stood: the cloth left with Mr. W., and nothing more said or done about it, until a few days, before you left here, he received a bill from you, through Mr. John Allen, for two yards of cloth, at $4,00 a yard, amounting to $8,00, which he paid. He informed me that he had not mentioned the subject to any person but Mr. Allen.[1] I remarked to him, that as the matter now stood in the absence of any explanation from you, the influence that would be drawn, was, that you had received a present from others for Mr. Wilks, and that you had received pay for it from him, and appropriated it to your own use. And as I was not prepared to put that construction on the matter, that I would, if he had no objection, write to you and inform you of his statement; and that I had not the least doubt that the whole matter would be explained by you satisfactorily to the mind of every one. He said he had no objection to my doing so, if I was careful to state just what he had told; and therefore I have written this to you, giving his statement, in every essential, and in about the same words, or as near as I could give them.
And now, my dear Sir, I will repeat that I have not the shadow of a doubt, that you will be able to give a satisfactory explanation of the whole matter, should you consider it of sufficient consequence to notice. Please write me, and if I should deem it necessary to pursue the matter any further, I will use your communication, if I judge it to be requisite, in your behalf.
Please give my love to Mrs. Barrett, and all others of my New Church acquaintances, not forgetting Mr. Wayne, and believe me,
Yours truly,
Now if Mr. Wilks’ statement, as here reported by Mr. Miller had been true, then Mr. Barrett had certainly been guilty of a very heinous offence, and one which could not fail to ruin his reputation wherever this story should be believed. He had received goods given him in charity expressly for Mr. Wilks, had sent the goods to Mr. Wilks contrary to his remonstrance, declaring that they were for him, and insisting that he should accept them; and then, two years afterwards, had sent to Mr. W. his bill for the same goods, received the money for them, and appropriated it to his own use. This was the impression which Mr. Wilks’ own statement of the matter made upon Mr. Miller’s mind, at the very time Mr. Miller called on him for the particulars; and from Mr. Miller’s remark at the close-of this statement, Mr. W. knew that just this impression had been made upon him. This was the impression received by Mr. Miller when he first heard the story from Mr. Moffat.
- ↑ [On account of the unfriendly feelings which Mr. Wilks well knew were at that time cherished by Mr. Allen towards Mr. Barrett, making such a statement to Mr. A was almost as sure to give it a wide circulation, as if he had printed it in a public newspaper.
