I perceive by a publication in the Pennsylvania Packet, signed Richard Wells, that a charge against me has been made by that Gentleman to the Supreme Executive Council. In his Memorial respecting the Comptroller General, he evidently accuses me of a Violation of my public duty in accepting fee, on the prosecution of several information, in the name of Frederick Phile, quitam, &c. To your Excellency and the Council, who understand the nature of my connection with the public and the duties incumbent on me; this charge must have appeared absurd and extravagant; and as I have hitherto received no intimation of it from your honorable body, I presume it has been considered as unworthy of notice. If, however, the memorial which contains it should be suffered to remain on your files, I must take the liberty of requesting that this letter may remain there also, that those who may hereafter read the accusation may be able to determine on its Justice.

That my official duty does not call upon me to assist in the prosecution of any quitam information will appear from the opinion which I have the honor to enclose. It is subscribed by all the Judges of the Supreme Court that are, at present in Town. These suits may be, and generally are instituted, without authority from the Council or the knowledge of the Attorney General. They are conducted at the private risque of the informer; and by such Council as he chuses to employ. He alone is answerable for all costs and expences and liable for all damages to the party injured in case he should fail. Till the sentence of condemnation passes, he fights the Battle alone, unaided by the State, which has never in a single instance borne any part of the expence incurred on an unsuccessful information. Whenever I happen to be retained in these causes I appear as council for the informer: I receive my recompence from him and not from the State; and whether a proportionable part of this and the other Expences, shall be borne by the Commonwealth is a matter in which I am not at all interested. Hitherto, indeed, it has been considered as reasonable that the informer who runs all the hazard and encounters all the Difficulties and unmerited reproach attendant on the prosecution, should receive his legal Proportion out of the nett product of the forgeiture; the expences of the prosecution being first deducted and the residue divided as the law directs. Whatever the state thus receives, it acquires (by the private Exertion, of the Individual who prosecuted;) without any risk or Expence on the part of the public. And as these forfeitures are established for the great purposes of Punishment and Example, not of immediate revenue, these ends wou’d be answered, and the Commonwealth essentially benefited, even if the whole forfeiture had been given by the act to the informer.

The suit against the Ship Anna was commenced by Mr. Ingersol while I was on the circuit with the Judge. On my return home I was retained as assistant Council in the Cause; and I flatter myself that your Excellency and the Council will not conceive that I violate my public duty by attending to the Business of my Profession.

This groundless, accusation so wantonly made without the least provocation, and not in the most handsome terms, could never have been designed, for the honorable body over which you preside. What purposes were to be answered or what Passions gratified by it I shall never stoop to enquire. But I trust in the Justice of the Supreme Executive of Pennsylvania that they will never countenance an unmerited attack upon the character of any officer or citizen of the State. I have the honor to be with sentiments of the most perfect Respect and Esteem, your Excellency’s most obedient Servant