By a resolve of your Honorable Board and a Letter from the Sheriff of Montgomery County it appears that I am charged with opposing the execution of a Criminal by the name of John Brown on Saturday the 12th of April last. I cannot find words to express my astonishment of the representation of the business: nor did I think it possible that the Sheriff could ever have attempted to state it as he has, or that he could ever wish to hear more of his conduct in that affair: And permit me to assure your Excellency and the Honorable Council that my feelings on this Occasion cannot be described, And I do most solumnly declare upon Honor that I never had the most distant idea of any thing of the kind, nor can I think that there is any Member of your Honorable Body, with whom I have the honor of an acquaintance, that ever gave Credit to it. Can it be possible that a Man who has served you faithfully from the Commencement of the late War to the end of it, in Order to establish the present Government, a Man that has gone forth on every Occasion to support the Laws of his Country, I say can it be possible to suppose him capable of such an Act, let me assure your Excellency it was not the case; and let me hope your Honorable Body will pardon me in saying that there is scarcely one word of truth in what he calls a state of facts; And I flatter myself the Certificates which I forward with this, together with my own statment of the matter will place my character in a different point of light from that which the Sheriff wishes to place me in. And permit me to add that I feel great pain in being brought forward before your Honorable Body in a dispute with a Man that the record on your files contain charges against, and charges that a Jury of twelve respectable characters decided upon, which decision has branded him with every mark of infamy. I have the Honor to be with every sentiment of esteem and respect Your Excellency’s Most Obedient and Most Humble Servant