statement again; and if there were any words used' that conveyed any different impression than he intended to convey, I wished he would point it out and correct it. Also if there was any thing there written, that he had not said to me, if he would tell me I would erase it. He said he would do so. And on my reading the second time his statement, Mr. Wilks said, as to its being about two years from the time the cloth was sent, he could not be sure as to the period of time. I remarked, "That is unimportant." He also said that the words, "as he was not able to pay for it," were not used to me by him in that conversation. There was no other exception taken by Mr. Wilks to any thing which I had written to Mr. Barrett as Mr. Wilks' statement to me on board of the steam-boat.
[I omit here, merely for the sake of brevity, a portion of (Mr. Miller’s letter which relates to a dialogue carried on between him and Mr. Wilks, and which is not important ; and I give the concluding portion of this letter, which reads thus,]
After some farther conversation, I became satisfied that Mr. W. did not mean to do anything to set the matter right; when I told him, if he did not do something, or write to Mr. Barrett and satisfy him, I should (as I had got into the matter) read Mr. B.’s letter to all that I could ascertain had heard the outrageous slander, and such others as I might deem necessary in defence of an absent man. Whereupon Mr. Wilks, somewhat excited, said if I dared to read that letter around, and thereby injure him, he would come out with a full statement in the N. J. Magazine. I assured him I had no desire to injure him, and that I had no personal feeling in the matter; but if he did not set the matter right with Mr. Barrett, just as sure as I lived, I would read the letter whenever and wherever I might deem it necessary in the cause of justice.
The above statement I have carefully read to Mr. Samuel L. Waldo, with a request, that, if anything written was incorrect, he would point out the error and I would correct it. After it was read, Mr. Waldo said he could not discover anything incorrect in the statement.
Now it appears from the above letter that Mr. Wilks did himself acknowledge the correctness, in every essential particular, of Mr. Miller’s statement in his first letter to me (No. I.); and this, too, after it had been read to him a second time, and he had been particularly requested if there was anything in it calculated to convey an impression different from what he meant to convey, he would point it out. And to the truth of this Mr. Miller has testified in the most solemn manner, as appears from the following affidavit.
| State of California, | |
| County of San Francisco. |
