Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/327

Judge Moore's letter to the Governor that was deemed so offensive by the Assembly, which however Judge Moore declared was his own authorship ; but to the fact that he had been instru- mental in causing its publication in the German newspaper that was published under the care of the German Society, which was not denied. The Governor appointed a day for hear- ing the case, but in the meanwhile the House impatient at the Governor's tardiness and wishing to lose no time in avenging the indignity to the former house had placed Judge Moore under arrest, which in turn he pleaded as an excuse for not appearing before the Governor for the appointed hearing. Governor Denny and the Assembly fell into an angry correspondence, as the latter came under the belief that he was seeking the refuge of technicalities on behalf of the Judge. On 1 1 January he was adjudged guilty of a high contempt, and ordered to be impris- oned until he should retract. On the 1 3th, Mr. Smith was called up to answer for his share in this controversy, and on the 24th he was adjudged guilty of " promoting and publishing the libel- lous paper &c," and on the next day, on being ordered in and Informed of this finding, he arose and said he would make an appeal to the King. On being presented with the alternative of a retraction, he replied, in one of his eloquent outbursts, as he was conscious of no offense against the house, his lips should never give his heart the lie, there being no punishment which they could inflict half so terrible to him as the thought of forfeiting his veracity and good name with the world, 1 which attracted applause among his friends who were in the house, but for which they in turn were brought up for censure and admonition. Mr. Smith was then committed to the Sheriff for imprison- ment, and to Jail he went. On 4 February he applied to Chief 1 American Magazine, p. 200. In this serial will be found, in the Numbers for February and August, 1758, Mr. Smith's narrative of this whole proceeding. " The Assembly of this province hath been sitting since the 2nd inst [January], during which time some steps have been taken, so alarming in their nature, and attended with such public heats and animosities, that we dare not trust ourselves at present to give a particular account of them, least we should have caught some degree of the general infection to make us depart from our usual coolness and candor of disquisition," p. 199.