1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



[For Witij'uer's Americau Bee Journal.] 



A Well Assumed Moral ludignation! 



That our readers may judge impartially, we 

 insert Mr. H. A. King's reply to our personal of 

 March last. 



The Defence Of Mr. L. Against "Misrepresenta- 

 tion." 



" Wliom the gods would destroy they first make mad." 



For more than a year past, we have been the object 

 of the grossest misrepresentations and the vilest in- 

 sinuations, but tip to the time of Mr. Wagner's death, 

 Mr. Langstroth himself liad maintained his usual 

 dignified position in tliis controveisy. But "liow are 

 the mighty fallen." Scarcely were the funeral servi- 

 ces of Mr. Wagner ended, when Mr. L. seized his pen, 

 and descending far below the plane of common re- 

 spect, gives vent to a tirade of foul aspersions and 

 da''k insinuations while under the iufluence of a well 

 assumed " moral indignation." 



For this furious outburst, which he says some of 

 his readers may think is overdone and " will recoil up- 

 on himself," he pleads as an excuse, what he calls our 

 " December utterances"' against him, and that a sa- 

 cred duty to the late Mr. Wagner demanded it. Mr. 

 L. must have carelessly neglected the imperative call 

 of duty, or else tliis is only an excuse, for his article 

 contains no defence of Mr. W., nor a reply to any- 

 tliiug said aijainst him; and Mr. Fisher, Jr., one of 

 Langstrotli & Otis's attorneys, pronounced our De- 

 cember article " a fair and genteel discussion on the 

 subject." We believe it has been Mr. L.'s policy 

 from the first to have otherx keep up a steady fire 

 against us, hoping to secure our defeat, and eventu- 

 ally our service in his behalf About a year since he 

 said that if he had been connected with a man like 

 us, he would have done well ; and not long after- 

 wards, he said to us, " with your energy, you would 

 have made a fortune out of my patent." We replied 

 by telling him that in view of his course, in refusing 

 to compromise, we should give him the benefit of all 

 the energy he ga\e us credit for. 



Our success in obtaining testimony invalidating his 

 patent, caused a change in his tactics. If we could 

 not be forced to capitulate by warfare, perhaps our 

 desire for peace, and supposed love of money might 

 induce us to give them the victory. Hence a share of 

 the spoils, and a union with such illustrious men was 

 tendered to us. The dishonorable terms of compro- 

 mise to secure a union and an extension were re- 

 jected, but the proposition admonished us of our 

 duty in another direction. We acted promptly and 

 energetically, and not without success, as the pen of 

 Mr. L. has well proven. 



We believe these are the acts which have driven 

 him to desperation. He has become convinced that 

 the proposed union cannot be eflTected, and now he 

 " will hold no terms with such a man." There is 

 nothing more to be gained, and as he alone is left, he 

 will have the satisfaction of dealing the deadly blows 

 of revenge, himself. We told Mr. Otis that they had 

 no one to blame but themselves, for they refused to 

 compromise when we could have done so honorably, 

 for then we had not the thousandth part of the evi- 

 dence we now have, against Mr. L.'s claims, but we 

 never could have united with anyone to collect black- 

 mail from the honest beekeepers of the land. We 

 would not intimate that Mr. L. himself has ever done 

 this, for we will make no insinuations atrainst liis 

 cliaracter. Our editorial Avritteu at Washington bo- 



fore we had heard of Mr. L.'s acciJent, or Mr. W's 

 death, closed with the following words : 



But as we said before, so wo still say, we have no ill will 

 towards Mr. Wafjuer, or Otis, and that we have the same kind 

 regards for Mr. Langstroth, that we have ever manifested. 

 And we stand ready, as soon as the conflict is over, to do more 

 for him than we ever proposed to do. 



He refuses to give credit to our Christian character 

 and non-resistant principles, and labors to convince 

 his readers, that our heart is full of malice towards 

 him. He says we boast of our religious devotion, 

 and as proof, quotes the following, from a biographical 

 sketch of our life, published in the Phrenolof/ical Jour- 

 nal, February, 1871, and leaves his readers to infer, 

 that the language is our owu : 



Active out-of-door exerci.se liaving now restored the health 

 of Mr. King, his impulses of duty, again called him to the 

 home missionary field. A psculi.irity in his labor, was tliat 

 he never received any pay for his ministerial work, not ev^n 

 for traveling expenses, when called to journey for the benelit 

 of his fellow men, many miles by rail. This has given him 

 great power with skeptical minds, since they could not 

 question the purity of his motives, and the sincerity of Lis 

 purposes. 



the business, however, to which he gave such impetus, 

 now began to feel the effects of his absence, and yielding to a 

 strung outside pressure, ui>on niiiture deliberation, he decided 

 to return to his business, under the solemn vow that he woulil 

 use all his surplus income to advance the holy work to which 

 he had devoted his youth. 



Mr. L. may well quote ; 



Alas for the rarity of Christian cliariiy, 



for his whole article — especially at this point — is a 

 sad, but forcible illustration of its truth. It is a com- 

 mon fault of biographers to praise too much, but it 

 is not common for men of Mr. L.'s standing, to wan- 

 der so far from the subject of controversy to obtain 

 matter to injure tlie jicrsonal character of his oppo- 

 nent. If these are his best weapons, and his cause is 

 to be maiutained by poetical quotations, works of 

 fiction and attacks upon our personal character, 

 weak indeed must be his position against those who 

 he imagiues are his opponents and maligners. 



We thank Mr. L. for his just criticism on our ex- 

 tract from the Cleveland paper concerning Mr. Moon's 

 invention of movable fratnes. We quoted the report 

 of most of the speeches from the Cleveland papers 

 and put in that quotation without thinking that we 

 were reporting it, officially, as secretary of the North 

 American Beekeeper's Association. Mr. L. is also 

 entitled to our thanks, for calling our attention to our 

 announcement that we should not be a candidate for 

 any office. By the solicitation of friends we concluded 

 to allow our name to be used lest our opponents 

 should claim I hat our refusal was evidence of fears of 

 the result. We inform Mr. L. that the quotation 

 from our Jooknal, where we are represented as 

 saying that Huber used the 2}rese7it style of frames, is 

 a "typographical error, as the context shows that it 

 should read "section style." 



The quotation about " bottomless pit," is itself a 

 quotation from one of the attacks made on us a year 

 ago. Mr. L.'s reply to Baron Von Berlepsch we trust 

 will meet a response from that gentleman, and if so, 

 the extent of our influence in the preparation of his 

 " Declaration" will be exhibited, as well as the sup- 

 posed discrepancies noticed in the Bienenzeituiig. 



Mr. King's complaints of "gross misrepresen- 

 tations and vile insinuations" unsustained by 

 any facts, come with very bad grace from the man 

 who was the first aggressor in this controversy. 

 Not until February, 1>71, did Mr. Wagner call 

 attention to the vVorthlessness of his patents — 



