I have been unjust to a stranger todayⒶemendation or unfaithful to my duty as a citizen, I cannot yet determine which. I wish now to right that stranger if I have wronged him, &Ⓐemendation I wish also to retrieve my citizenship.2explanatory note

Here are the facts in the case: Yesterday evening while I was at dinner a card was brought to me bearing the inscription “Prof. A—— B——.” I said, “I do not know the professor; ask him to excuse me; & if he should chance to call again, tell him to drop me a line through the post office & state his business.” {Experience has taught me that strangers never call upon a man with any other design than to sell him a lightning rod; & experience has also taught me that if you suggest the post to these parties, they respect your sagacity & do not trouble you any more.} But the professor called again this morning at ten o’clock & sent up a couple of documents—documents so conspicuously dirty that it would be only fair & right to tax them as real estate. One of these papers was a petition for aid to establish a school in a southern state; the petitioner justifying his appeal upon the ground that he had suffered for his union sentiments, in that state, during the war. The supplication was signed “A—— B——, late candidate for the legislature of” (said state.) It seemed to me that of all the mild honors I had ever heard of men claiming, that of defeated candidate for legislative distinction was certainly the mildest.

Peering into the dirt of this paper, I perceived through the rich gloom a string of names, with “$10,” “$20,” “$50,” “$100,” & other sums, set opposite them. Several were well known Hartford names, others were familiar New York names. A few seemed to be autograph signatures, the rest not. “Hon.” Peter Cooper was down for a generous sum;3explanatory note so also was “Hon.” W. C. Bryant—both in a foreign hand. Just think of the idea of trying to add dignity to the old poet’s name by sticking that paltry “Hon.” to it!4explanatory note

I turned to the Late Candidate’s other soiled document. It was a letter sheet with half a dozen grimy “notices” from village newspapers pasted on it. These were all highly complimentary to the “Hon.” A—— B——, “the great English elocutionist & reader.” {There was also gratuitous mention of the smallness of one of the audiences he had enchanted—a remark which might as well have been left out}.

I said to myself: Last night this person was “Professor” A—— B——; in his petition he is “late candidate” for a legislature; when he travels as the Great English Elocutionist he is the “Hon.” A—— B——; what he is professor of does not appear; he does not account for his title of “Hon.”; (for, merely running for that dazzling legislative position does not confer the title); he could not have brought it from England, for only certain officials & the younger sons of noblemen are permitted to use it there, & if he belonged in either of those lists he is not the person to forget to mention it. About this time my cold in the head gave my temper a wrench, & I said: “Go & tell the professor I don’t wish to invest in his educational stock.”

Now, there is where I acted precipitately, & failed of my duty either as a citizen or toward this stranger. I ought to have looked into his case a littleⒶemendation. By jumping to the conclusion that he was a fraud, I may possibly have wronged him; if he is a fraud I ought to have proved it on him & exposed him, that being the plain duty of a citizen in such cases.

Very well. Having committed this error, I now wish to retrieve it; so I make the following proposition to Mr. A—— B——, to wit:—That he send me that list of names again, so that I can write the parties & inquire if they ever gave those sums, & if they did, what proofs they had of A—— B——’s worthiness; that he refer me to reputable persons in that southern state, to the end that I may inquire of them concerning his history there (not that I wish to inquire into his “late candidacy,”—for I think that when a man has unsuccessfully aspired to be a legislator, & is capable of mentioning it where people could not otherwise find it out, he is manifestly telling the petrified truth); that he refer me to a trustworthy authority who can inform me how he got the title of “Professor”; how he got the title of “Hon.”; & what the name of his English birthplace is—so that I can have his parish register examined. These data being furnished me, & I finding by means of them, that A—— B—— is not an impostor, I will take stock in his school & also furnish him a certificate of character which shall be signed by some of the best men of Hartford—a certificate which shall far out-value his present lame documents.

But if A—— B——’s references shall fail to establish his worthiness, I will publish him & also try to procure his arrest as a vagrant.

I will assist A—— B—— all I can, by enclosing copies of this article to Mr. Austin Dunham, Mr. William E. Dodge, Mr. Bryant, Mr. Peter Cooper, Messrs. Arnold, Constable & Co., & other parties in his list (including the officials of the southern city he mentions), to the end that they may quickly testify in his favor if they can.5explanatory note {I remember, now, that A—— B—— called on me just a year ago, & that he was then adding to his name the imperishable glory of “late candidate,” etc.}