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self possessed, after rising, I paused for some time,
bowed respectfully to the audience & with as
pleasing a countenance as I could assume, re-
quested their attention for a short time, as I [?]
red to address them partly as a candidate & partly
in self defence having been arraigned at the
bar of old Lincoln as a criminal. Everybody
seemed willing to hear me, & I proceeded. I made
the best speech I was capable of. I told them
I was a candidate for congress, that my name
was Micah Taul named in the transcript of the
record, read in their hearing - that I was a young
man, having no relations & but a few personal [ac-]
quaintances in the county; that the present is
my first visit to their town & county, the oldest in
the state - that my opponent resided here - sur-
rounded by friends, relations & persons acquaint-
ed with him, from his boyhood up, & altho' I had
received no marks of civility from him in other
parts of the district, I had expected at least
some tenderness, some forbearance from him
here at his own home - in old Stanford but
had been disappointed. I had had the presump-
tion to become a candidate for congress, in oppo-
sition to Mr. M., exercising what all would
admit to be an undoubted right - & for this all
the courtesies of life were to be sacrificed -
the character of your town & county injured by
a wanton & disgraceful attack up the cha-
racter of a stranger, simply because he was
in Mr. M's way. I told them of the con-
versation between Colo. Newelle & Mr. Quarles.
I supposed Mr. M. considered he had the pre-
emptive right to the office of representative
from this district & that Mr. Quarles was the
residuary legatee - they had both been in the
legislature - were both aspiring & ambitious
& had laid off the land to suit themselves &
they considered me to be an intruding