Monday, Sept. 25, 1842.
From the Evening Journal.
MR. WHITNEY--The communication of "McDonough" (alias U. S. Bank Reed,) in
this Morning's Court Chronicle, manifests that there is no small degree of
fluttering among the wounded pigeons of the "Holy Alliance." The assumption
of "McDonough" that _you_ and "Valley Forge" are one and the same person,
is a more novel than logical mode of disproving the truth of my
allegations. But let Mr. Reed rest easy upon that score. _Who_ I am, is
very little to the purpose; _what_ I assert is more germain to the
matter--and let this lacquay of Nicholas Biddle deny _that_ if he dare, or
disprove it if he can. If my charges are _true_, the identity of their
author with the editor of the Evening Journal could not detract from their
truth; if _false_, a more obvious as well as conclusive mode of
establishing their falsity presents itself.
But the truth is, that no arrow which has been shot into the camp of the
"Holy Alliance" rankles more deeply, or has worked worse execution, than
the exposure of the authorship of "McDonough." Not that Mr. Reed is by any
means, either intellectually or extrinsically, the most formidable member
of the combination; but now it is known that _he_ is the author of those
attacks upon the character of a good citizen, of a man against whom for
years the minions of the Bank have been directing their warfare without the
ability to discover a crevice in his coat of mail, the arm of the puny
assailant falls paralyzed to his side, and his intended victim laughs at
him in a tone of scorn, in which the whole community participates.
_William B. Reed_ to prate of patriotism! _William B. Reed_ to declaim upon
honor and patriotism! For the chimney-sweep to prate of cleanliness would
not be more anomalous. With what grace does the defence of the United
States Bank come from this "McDonough" of the Chronicle, when we know him
to be the veriest lick-spittle that Nicholas Biddle, in his day of pride
and power, ever retained in his service? As the friend of Nicholas Biddle,
as his purchased tool and agent, rather, Mr. Reed has never, for an
instant, hesitated to sacrifice to the promotion of the interests of the
Bank, every public trust which for the time being was confided to his
keeping. Why is it that Mr. Reed has never yet explained away or answered
the very extraordinary and _specific_ disclosures of _bribery_ which a
correspondent of the Ledger made against him in the summer of 1841?
Disclosures so astonishing that the eyes of the public, although long
accustomed to look upon the doings of the man with distrust, dilated with
astonishment. He was accused by the correspondent of the Ledger with having
as a member of the House of Representatives, _accepted bribes from the Bank
of the United States_; the several amounts were specified; documents were
even refered[TN] to; and yet Mr. Reed, instead of maintaining his good
ground and confronting his accuser, flies the city, absents himself for
some time upon the plea of a previously arranged excursion of pleasure; and
when, after his return, driven at length to a show of explanation, he
parades in print an evasion of charges, so paltry that its sophistry would
degrade the merest pettifoger in Mr. Biddle's Court of Criminal Sessions.
But since Mr. William B. Reed, alias Mr. U. S. B. McDonough, is so pure a
patriot, and has such a holy horror of "treason" and "traitors," I will
give him a few facts upon which to reflect, and with which he may enrich
and illustrate his future lucubrations.
_Fact No. 1._--That Mr. William B. Reed is, or claims to be, the grandson
of General Joseph Reed, of Revolutionary memory.
_Fact No. 2._--That Mr. William B. Reed is feelingly alive upon the subject
of his grandfather's memory, and has devoted the labors of nearly his whole
life to establish the popular delusion that his grandfather's patriotism
underwent the severest test and ordeal of the revolutionary struggle.
_Fact No. 3._--That Mr. William B. Reed has written essays, reviews and
paragraphs innumerable, to induce the public to believe, that when in 1778
or 1779, Governor Johnstone and the other British Commissioners, proposed
to General Reed a reward of 10,000 pounds sterling, and a lucrative office,
upon condition that he would lend himself to the views of Great Britain, he
indignantly spurned the proposal, and replied, "I am not worth the
purchase, but such as I am, King George is not rich enough to make it."
_Fact No. 4._--That no such proposal was ever made to General Joseph Reed,
and that General Joseph Reed never made any such reply.
_Fact No. 5._--That General Joseph Reed endeavoured to effect a negotiation
with the British Commissioners, and actually commenced it, to ascertain
what he might expect, in money and office, in case he succeeded in
effecting a reconciliation between the colonies and the mother country, or
in other words, that he would be instrumental in causing the revolted
colonies to return to their allegiance to Great Britain!
_Fact No. 6._--That General Joseph Reed, after much chaffering as to the
price, finally proffered his services to the British Commissioners, to
effect the objects mentioned in "Fact No. 5," for the sum of 10,000 pounds
sterling in hand, a Chief Justiceship, and the right to a tract of land
West and North-West of the then city of Philadelphia, upon a part of which
the Cherry Hill Penitentiary is now erected, and the whole of which, is at
this time probably worth from five to seven millions of dollars.
_Fact No. 7._--That while this negotiation was pending, and while the
hucksters were haggling as to the terms upon which it should close, it came
to the ears of the American Commander-in-Chief, that General Reed was
engaged in a very suspicious correspondence with the British Commissioners;
that General Washington sent for General Reed, and in the presence of his
staff, informed him of what he had heard, and demanded an explanation; and
that General Reed, finding denial out of the question, admitted that
overtures had been made to him by Governor Johnstone and his colleagues,
but that he had replied to them; "I am not worth the purchase, but such as
I am, King George is not rich enough to make it."
_Fact No. 8._--That this patriotic reply of General Joseph Reed, to the
attributed overtures of the British Commissioners, had its _sole origin_ in
the explanation with which he sought to dispel the suspicions of General
Washington; that General Washington ever after continued to regard him with
great distrust; and that several years subsequently, when General Reed, in
the presence of General Washington, was descanting upon the patriotic reply
with which he had foiled the British Commissioners, General Washington
turned away in disgust, and remarked to a friend, in a tone of voice
sufficiently audible to be heard by all present--_"I know the fellow well,
and am satisfied that he wanted but a price and an opportunity to play us
as false as Arnold."_
When Mr. Reed shall have sufficiently pondered over the facts thus
enumerated, I shall descend the ladder a step from his grandfather, and
come to his more immediate progenitor! Of him, I shall have the great
question to ask--what is the reason of his aversion to sunshine, that he
secludes himself all day like an owl or a bat? But the grandfather will
suffice for the present. Mr. Reed has certainly taken uncommon pains to
keep up the public delusion upon this subject. Let him know (what he will
soon know to his mortification,) that there yet survives a veteran of the
revolution--one whose mental faculties are undimmed by age--whose very
physical frame, time has treated with tenderness and respect--whose keen
and lively intelligence retains its ancient vigour--a Revolutionary
soldier, who well knew Joseph Reed; who equally well knew George
Washington; and who intends to give to the world, at no very distant day,
his knowledge of them, and of much beside.
Mr. Reed has fair warning--let him look to it.
Monday, Sept. 19, 1842. VALLEY FORGE.
From the Evening Journal.
MR. WHITNEY:--Since your publication of my last, "McDonough" has slacked
his fire wonderfully. It is surprising how one's tone becomes altered after
the discovery is made that the former idea of _invulnerability_ was a
great mistake. The home truths pressed upon Mr. William Bradford Reed (I
believe this is the first time that the public have been made acquainted
with the learned gentleman's name in full) have proved to be of unpalatable
flavor and difficult digestion; and it is not, therefore to be wondered at
that they should have for him no relish. I have not yet done with the
revolutionary reminiscences of his grandfather; that worthy whom "King
George was not rich enough to buy," although, as he himself modestly
admitted, he was "_not worth purchasing_:"
The writer of this paragraph had an opportunity, very many years since,
when Mr. Reed was a student of the Pennsylvania University, of becoming
somewhat intimately acquainted with his bent of mind; and if there ever was
a school-boy despised and detested by his fellows, William was that youth.
"The boy's the father of the man," and those who have known him only in his
ripened years, if they apply the truth of this axiom, will have no
difficulty in correctly conjecturing what must have been his early youth.
Even then his predominant weakness was to almost daily, and by the hour,
expatiate upon the merits of his _great_ "grandfather," and to entertain
boys, smaller and younger than himself, with the revolutionary
exploits--more numerous and diversified far than those with a narration of
which Othello beguiled the fair Desdemona, performed by that distinguished
personage: and in particular, how "the General" had repulsed the proffered
bribe of the Treasury of Great Britain, and his pick and choice of the most
lucrative office in the Colonies.
Down to this day, this has continued to be the habit of Mr. Reed; and to
such an extent has he indulged it, that he has become the butt and laughing
stock of his acquaintance.
"O, wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae manie a blunder free us,
An foolish notion!"
The extraordinary pains taken by Mr. Reed, to circulate the notion of his
grandfather's more than Roman patriotism, would, of itself, be a
circumstance calculated to induce suspicion of their being "something
rotten in Denmark;" but, fortunately for the truth of history, the _proofs_
of General Reed's treachery and meditated "treason," [TN](if not _actual_
treason, are extant--and the veteran, to whom in my last I referred, will,
in due time, give them to the world. The descendants of General Reed have
succeeded long enough in imposing upon the American people, as a patriot
and a hero of the "times that tried men's souls," a wretch, who, in the
emphatic language of General Washington, spoke in his presence and hearing,
"wanted but a price and an opportunity to play us false as Arnold!" who,
while his fellow soldiers were stinted of food and scant of clothing, was
in actual treaty with the British Commissioners, to betray the American
Army, and their Commander-in-Chief, and their cause, _and their Country_,
to Great Britain, for the consideration of ten thousand pounds sterling, a
judicial office, and a tract of land!!!
By a monstrous suppression of truth, and an adroit perversion of the
explanation which General Reed gave to the demands of the American
Commander-in-Chief, respecting his correspondence with the British
Commissioners, his descendants have managed, so far, with tolerably general
success, to thrust into the ranks of the Carrolls and Hancocks, the Putnams
and Warrens of the Revolution, a "traitor," who entered into the struggle
as a matter of speculation; and who, from the date of his appointment, in
1774, as one of the Committee of Correspondence of Philadelphia, down to
the detection of the fact, some years after, that he was engaged in a
correspondence with the British Commissioners, watched with untiring
vigilance, for a proper "opportunity" to betray, for a sufficient "price,"
the cause, and the country, to the tender mercies of George the Third and
his ministry! There is scarcely a Review or Magazine, published in the
country, into which, under the pretext of reviewing some publication, Mr.
William B. Reed has not contrived to obtrude some panegyric of his
grandfather's patriotism--fulsome, even if true, but most monstrous when
considered with reference to its unworthy object.
Not content with chaunting Gen. Reed's praise as an "invisible singer," Mr.
Reed has not hesitated to take the field openly, and in person, and sound
the trumpet in the ears and before the eyes of the astonished lookers on.
Before every literary or collegiate association which he has been called
on, or _finefied_ to have himself invited to address, the eternal burden of
his song has been, "I am the grandson of the great and good patriot,
General Joseph Reed, of revolutionary memory, who replied to the emissaries
of Great Britain, when they offered him his own terms to further the views
of England, 'I am not worth the purchase, but poor as I am, King George is
not rich enough to make it.'" At New York, a few years since--afterwards,
in the Musical Fund Hall, in this city--more recently at Dickinson
College--quite lately at Harvard University, in short, everywhere, and on
all occasions, the self same tune has lulled his audiences into a general
slumber. How any one whose cheek is not formed of brass, can stand up as
Mr. Reed has accustomed himself to do, and thus dole out, on all occasions,
and before all assemblies, the patriotism of a grandfather for whose
"treason" he should blush, I am at a loss to imagine. Even if deserved
modesty ought to insinuate that the tribute would be more appropriately
paid, and in better taste, by other voices.
But the strongest part of all is, that Mr. Reed, with that full knowledge
which I know him to possess (and which I will satisfy him that I _know_ him
to possess) of his grandfather's traitorous designs and conduct, should,
nevertheless, have succeeded in steeling himself to the habit which has
made him so supremely and universally ridiculous.
Whenever it is announced that a new work is in preparation, in any way
connected with the events of the American Revolution, poor Mr. William B.
Reed "gets the fidgets." He throws business, as Macbeth did physic,--to the
dogs; he can hardly delay for the introduction of a supply of clean linen
into his carpet-bag; but, jumping into the next steamboat or railroad car,
he travels post-haste till he has reached the residence of the author, whom
he never leaves till he has fully satisfied himself that the projected work
is to contain nothing that can detract from the spurious fame of General
Reed, or call into question the truth of his attributed reply to the
British Commissioners. Poor Mr. Jared Sparks must have had a hard time of
annoyance during the long series of years in which he was engaged in
preparing for the press his editions of the correspondence of Washington
and Franklin. Mr. Bancroft, the author of _the_ History of the United
States, is, at present, a particularly prominent object of Mr. Reed's
dread. Indefatigable in his researches he cannot have failed to become
possessed of some of the evidences of General Reed's "treason," and, stern
in his impartiality, it is not to be supposed that he will hesitate to
place before the world the character and doings of this miscreant in their
true colours. Fearful of this, Mr. Reed has long been engaged in playing
the _toady_ to Mr. Bancroft: with what success thus far, remains to be
seen: but one thing is certain, that Mr. Bancroft will have placed in his
hands, in time to inform him fully for his preparation of that volume of
his history in which it will become necessary for him to introduce the name
of General Joseph Reed, letters and documents that will establish the
"treason" of that worthy beyond a doubt.
The last volume of Mr. Bancroft's work comes down no later than 1784; so
that there will probably appear another volume before the period of General
Reed's exploits will become the subject of his composition; and of this
length of time Mr. Reed will doubtless endeavor to take advantage and make
good use. He has just made a formidable demonstration upon Mr. Bancroft.
"At the recent literary festival at Cambridge," (to borrow the language of
Mr Reed, contained in his late letter to the editors of the National
Intelligencer, concerning Mr. Graham, the historian,) Mr. Reed's _toadying_
of Mr. Bancroft was the subject of general comment. Not content with the
display of his fulsome civilities on that occasion, Mr. Reed has since
forced an opportunity of volunteering to the editors of the National
Intelligencer, the letter to which I have just alluded; in which under the
pretext of honouring the memory of the late James Graham, Esq., the English
author of a History of American Colonies, Mr. Bancroft is plastered with
praise. It is thus that Mr. Reed seeks either to impose upon Mr. Bancroft
the same "Romance of American History," in which the grandfather is the
principal personage, with which he flatters himself he has duped every body
else, or to disarm him of any intention of publishing the _true_ history of
his connection with the British Commissioners.--And what most of all
enhances the meanness of Mr. Reed's conduct is the fact, that, but a year
or two since, he was accustomed, at the Whig political meetings of this
city, to make Mr. Bancroft (who then held the office of Collector of the
Port of Boston, and was a prominent Democrat,) the especial object of his
abuse, lavished upon him in the most unmeasured terms.
Such is the man, who, with a thorough knowledge of his grandfather's
delinquencies, persists in upholding him to the world as a true and
sterling patriot; who, knowing him to be a "_Traitor_," steeped in
"_Treason_" to the very eyelids, and seeking to barter away his country and
its liberties for British gold and office, represents him, unblushingly, as
the worthy compeer of Washington, a fellow labourer in the same vineyard,
toiling from the rising to the setting of the sun!!! But Mr. Reed's race of
eulogy of his ancestors is nearly run. The proof of that man's treachery,
long known to the _few_, will soon be promulgated to the _many_--to the
WORLD. How _then_, will Mr. William B. Reed feel, when he remembers his
itinerant career of laudation; his journeyings by sea and by land, that the
trumpet of General Joseph Reed's praises might be sounded? His essays,
reviews, addresses, and heaven only knows what all besides? But, above all,
how will he _then_ feel when he remembers that, under the stolen name of a
naval hero of the Late War, he, this worthy descendant of a Traitor and
Tory of the Revolution, once devoted whole weeks to the malignant endeavour
to fasten upon a pure and unoffending citizen the very crime of "Treason,"
of which he knew his own grandfather to have been guilty?
With one or two little anecdotes, (the character of which may somewhat
surprise Mr. Reed at the extent and accuracy of my information,) I close
for the present. I will select those which Mr. Reed has the best reasons
for knowing to be true. During the visit of Lafayette to this country, the
father of Mr. William B. Reed, (Mr. Joseph Reed, the late Recorder of
Philadelphia,) called on the General at his quarters, in this city, and
requested the honour of a private interview. The General (who had been
waited upon by Mr. Reed before, in company with the authorities, and other
citizens) intimated his numerous and pressing engagements; but Mr. Reed
persisting, the interview was granted; one not strictly private, however,
there being two other gentlemen present. Mr. Reed informed the General that
his object was to obtain from him some revolutionary anecdotes, of which he
was convinced he must possess a stock, of his father, the late General
Joseph Reed. General Lafayette's countenance immediately fell: he
endeavoured politely to evade Mr. Reed's request; at last, as Mr. Reed
would take nothing short of downright refusal, the General was, at length,
compelled to remark, "I am sorry to say, sir, that I am acquainted with no
anecdotes of the late General Reed which it would be pleasant for his son
or any of his friends to hear." Mr. R. having bowed himself out of the room
in great confusion, the General remarked to one of the gentleman present,
in surprise, "This is very strange! Can it be possible that Mr. Reed is
ignorant of the opinion which the officers of the Revolution entertained of
his father?" And now for another, in which Mr. William B. Reed himself
figured. A year or two before the death of Bishop White, he called on the
venerable prelate and made a request precisely similar to that with which
his father had troubled General Lafayette. Anxious to spare his feelings,
the good Bishop endeavoured to change the subject; but, no other mode
offering of escaping from the pertinacity of Mr. Reed, he said to him,
"Young man, upon the subject of your grandfather, the least that's said,
will be soonest mended!"
In my next, I will so far follow the example of McDonough, as to publish a
few "Documents," the original of which will be consigned, before long, to
Mr. Bancroft.