21 May 1864 • Virginia City, Nev. Terr. (Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 24 May 64, UCCL 02773)
James Laird, Esq—Sir:—I wrote you a note this afternoon demanding a published retraction of insults that appeared in two articles in the Union of this morning—or satisfaction. I have since received what purports to be a reply, written by a person who signs himself “J. W. Wilmington,” in which he assumes the authorship and responsibility of one of said infamous articles.1explanatory note Mr. Wilmington is a person entirely unknown to me in the matter, and has nothing to do with it. In the columns of your paper you have declared your own responsibility for all articles appearing in it, and any farther attempt to make a catspaw of any other individual and thus shirk a responsibility that you had previously assumed will show that you are a cowardly sneak. I now peremptorily demand of you the satisfaction due to a gentleman—without alternative.
Clemens had received the following response, not from Laird (who he presumed had written “The ‘How Is It’ Issue,” the Union’s 21 May editorial), but from the author of the “Printer” letter, which the paper published the same day:
References
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 1: 1853–1866. Edited by Edgar Marquess Branch, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1988
- Smith, Henry Nash, ed. Mark Twain of the “Enterprise.” Edited by Henry Nash Smith, with the assistance of Frederick Anderson. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1957
- Wilmington, J. W. [Printer, pseud.]. “Personal Correspondence, Item II.” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 24 May, clipping in Scrapbook 3:146, CU-MARK. 1864
“Personal Correspondence,” letter III, Virginia City, Territorial Enterprise, 24 May 64, clipping in Scrapbook 3:146, Moffett Collection, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L1 , 292; Benson, 183, reprinted from the Sacramento Union, 26 May 64, 2; MTEnt , 192.
see Moffett Collection, p. 462.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.