Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Michael Cresap
Martin soon after published, in pamphlet form, the defense of Captain Cresap's character, but it had not the desired effect; first, because it was not, nor could in its nature be coextensive with the Notes on Virginia; secondly, pamphlets, after the first reading, are thrown aside, lost and forgotten. And per mit me to add, thirdly, that at the period when Mr. Martin's piece issued from the press politics ran high, party spirit was hot, and Mr. Jefferson's name stood highest among his breth ren of the great and respectable Republican party. It was but too evident that any blemish on the moral fame of such a man was easily transferable to his political standing; hence it was better upon the whole, some men might think, that Cre sap, however innocent, should yet remain under censure than that any suspicion as to the perfection of so great a character should rest on the public mind. Since which period, regard less of truth, honor and justice, a great many craters, poets and scribblers have been dashing away at the name, and fame, and character of a man of whom it is presumable they know just about as much as of Kouli Khan or prester John, and who was as much their superior as the noble lion is to the muskrat. All these little folks, I knew, would soon sink into the dusky shades of oblivion, and therefore regarded them as squibs of smoke that the wind would carry away.
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