Page:The Judicial Capacity of the General Convention Exemplified.djvu/21

city of New York, either the week before or the week after the meeting of the General Convention, in June, 1849. With this course I will be satisfied, provided Mr. Wilks will pledge himself before witnesses or in writing, to abide by the decision of such ecclesiastical court.

B. F. Barrett.

"Cincinnati, Oct. 28, 1848."

The above proposition was submitted to Mr. Wilks on the 18th of Nov., 1848, through Mr. John McCraith, accompanied by Mr. Oliver J. Noyes, then both of New York, and personally acquainted with Mr. Wilks; but Mr. W. declined accepting it. And there this matter rested, until the Executive Committee of the General Convention, in 1854, insisted on making Mr. Wilks an officer of that body before he had become a member, and contrary to my earnest remonstrance, and solemn protest.

And notwithstanding the General Convention, in its published report, has charged me with "not seeking to be guided by the divine law in settling this difficulty at first," I really do not see how it was possible for me, under the circumstances, to have acted more in “conformity to true order" than I did. I was 800 miles distant from Mr. Wilks. What more did the laws of charity require me to do, than I actually did do? I have never yet been able to see what more I ought to have done.

It will be seen that the charge of slander against Mr. Wilks, is based, not upon anything that Mr. Allen, or Mr. Moffat, or any one else may have said, but solely and exclusively upon Mr. Wilks' own statement in Mr. M.’s first letter to me—(No. I.)

Did Mr. Miller report Mr. Wilks correctly in that letter? The evidence that he did so, is exceedingly strong—so strong, that I see not how it is possible to doubt it. He made a copy of that letter, word for word; and this copy, or that part of it containing the report of Mr. Wilks' statement, he read to Mr. W. in the presence of Mr. Waldo, and Mr. Wilks pronounced it correct in every important particular. Here is Mr. Miller’s testimony on this point. He says:—

A.—(No. V.)

New-York, Sunday, Sept. 3, 1848.

I called this afternoon on Mr. Wilks in company with Mr. Waldo, and introduced the subject of my letter of June 23d, 1848, to Mr. Barrett, and, from a copy, read that part which referred to Mr. Wilks statement to me about the cloth, which he stated was substantially true. And being about reading it over to Mr. Wilks the second time, I remarked to him that it was exceedingly difficult to write down the exact words of a conversation, and I was desirous of writing down nothing but the truth. I would read the part containing his