| Citation |
PG-P.740.008
8 May 1740:21,22 (595)
In my last, at the request of Mr. Seward, I inserted an
article of news, relating to the shutting up of the Concert
Room, &c. which it seems gives great offence to the
gentlemen concern'd in the entertainments usually carry'd on
there; for tho' the article is allow'd to be literally true,
yet by the manner of expression 'is thought to insinuate
something that is not true, viz. That the gentlemen forbore
meeting on the night mentioned, as thinking such
entertainments inconsistence with the doctrine of the
gospel. I have often said, that if any persons thinks
himself injured in a publick news-paper, he has a right to
have his vindication made as publick as the aspersion. The
gentlemen above mentioned have brought me the following
letter to be inserted in my paper, believing the publication
of it will be advantageous to their reputation: And tho' I
think there is a good deal of difference between a
vindication and an invective; and that, whatever obligations
a printer may be under to publish things of the former kind,
he can be under none with regard to the latter: Yet, as the
publishing of this, will obviate a groundless report
(injurious to that gentleman) that Mr. Whitefield had
engag'd all the Printers not to print any thing against him,
lest his doctrine and practice should be expos'd, and the
people undeceiv'd; I shall therefore print it as I received
it: And when the publick has heard what may possibly be
said in reply, they will then judge for themselves.
Philadelphia, May 6. 1740.
Mr. Franklin, The persons concerned in the Assembly and
Concert, think their characters injur'd by the insinuation
which the paragraph in your last Gazette, relating thereto,
manifestly carries in it; as if any of them had declined
going to either, on account of their being inconsistent with
the doctrine of the Christian religion.
Agreeable therefore to what you promised, that your press
should be open to any vindication the gentlemen concerned
might think proper to make, you are desir'd to publish this
letter, which will let the world know in what an unbecoming
manner this affair has been conducted.
William Seward, who came into this place as an attendant
and intimate companion of Mr. Whitefield's, inconsistently
(to use his own expression) with the doctrine of the gospel,
took upon him to invade other men's property; and contrary
of law and justice, on the 16th of April, shut up the door
of the Concert Room, without any previous application to, or
consent had of any of the members; and being informed, that
he had by this act, made himself liable to a prosecution, he
went that very day before this notable paragraph was
publish'd, and as is suppos'd, after his delivery of it to
you to be printed, and ask'd pardon of some of the principal
gentlemen of that Society for his indiscretion, repeatedly
assuring them, that he knew nothing of any gentlemen's
having hired the rooms, and that if he had had the least
intimation of it, he would not have caused them to be shut
up: And in this it appears he asserted an untruth, in order
to have an apology for his conduct; for Mr. Bolton, of whom
the rooms were taken, had before Steward's shutting them up,
inform'd him, that they were hired by some of the chief
persons in town, for a term then unexpired; which
declaration of Mr. Bolton's was confirmed by Seward himself,
who happening to come into your shop at the very time when
you had given him for the author of the paragraph, to some
who were come to make enquiry about it, he thought proper to
give a detail of the part he had acted in this affair; and
therein he own'd, that before his shutting up the rooms, Mr.
Bolton had told him they belonged to the members of the
Concert, tho' he had so lately pretended and affirmed the
contrary, when he ask'd pardon as before related.
It is said the paragraph is true, because the company did
not meet to dance on the Tuesday before the date of your
last Gazette: But alas! will this justify the iniquity of
such an imposition on the public? The fact was; the same
night the rooms were shut up by Seward, the Gentlemen of the
concert judging such a romantick piece of conduct cou'd only
proceed from a wrong turn of head, thought it below them to
take any notice of it, and therefore ordering their door to
be opened again, met the night after according to custom;
and the Tuesday following, the company met to dance as they
used to do; but the assembly being only for the winter
season, is now discontinued of course, and the Concert being
for the whole year, still goes on as usual.
After this account of Seward's behaviour, no one can
wonder at his low craft, in getting the paragraph foisted
into the news papers just before his departure for England,
in order to carry it along with him, and spread his master's
fame, as tho' he had met with great success among the better
sort of people in Pennsylvania, when at the same time, to
his great mortification, he can't but be sensible that he
has been neglected by them; and were they to deliver their
sentiments of him with the same freedom he takes with
others, he wou'd presently discover, they had both him and
his mischievous tenets in the utmost contempt.
Nor is this the only instance of misrepresentation in
favour of Mr. Whitefield's success; for in all those
articles of news, which give an account of the vast crouds
who compose his audience, their numbers are always
exaggerated, being often doubled and sometimes trebled: And
considering that these accounts are said to be put into the
papers by themselves, are they not a further specimen of
their little regard to truth? Nay, are they not a
demonstration that these men have other designs in view than
are agreeable to their pretences? And what such a cause
must be that requires such means to propagate it, is left to
the judgment of all unprejudiced men.
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