Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
I1 Received your’s of Octr. 27th, Ult.2 In which you Charge me without using your Character too freely, and Call on me to shew the occasion. It was this; at a Town Meeting to Chuse Governour, Lt. Governer & Senators—After the town had (in my opinion) generally Voted for those Gentn. first Chosen viz Hancock & Bowdoin, some person proposed you, for one, to a few of us (four or five I beleive) who were together a littel from the body of the meeting. I then Objected to those few, not to the Meeting against your being sett in Competition, with Mr. Hancock and Mr. Bowdoin. I acknowledge that in the Course of the Conversation I inadvertantly & Imprudently said some things that I do not Justifie, but ever from that time have Condemned my self for. But it was not my Intent to Injure your Character, nor had I malice or Ill will towards you in my heart, But was Inattentive to the precepts of the Gospel, by which I am to Regulate my Actions—And as I am sensible I did wrong in giving my Opinion so freely, I Retract it, & Ask your Pordan for it—I shall also Endeavour to Remove all Undue Impressions made on the minds of others by my said free Discouse if any such were made.
I am Really obliged to you for your Reproving Letter and hope to be greatly profited by it, It being the only one of the kind I ever Recd.
For the future I shall be very carefull to set a watch over my lips least I offend with my tongue.
As I have always Approved of your Character as an Attory. Generall so I shall use my Influence to promote your Usefullness in it, and be particularly carefull of it, while you Continue a freind to the Rights of Mankind.
Eleazar Porter (1728–1797) was a 1748 Yale graduate, lawyer, and leading citizen of Hadley, Mass. Commissioned as a justice of the peace in 1758, he later served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (from 1778) and as a judge of probate (from 1779) in Hadley (Dexter, Biographical Sketches of Yale Graduates, 2:178–179).
Not located.