B. H. Latrobe
Published: 2017-12-14
Total Pages: 36
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Excerpt from Opinion on a Project for Removing the Obstructions: To a Ship Navigation to Georgetown, Col. The deposition which is contained in the following sheets... and to which are now added, the answers I pave to the questions put to me by the Committee of the House of Representatives, to whom was referred the bill from the Senate respecting a ship navigation to Georgetown, together with some further remarks and authorities... relates to a subject of the utmost importance, not only to this district, but to our country at large. It has already been published by Mr. T. Moore in the newspaper called the Spirit of 76, and in a detached pamphlet, together with his comments upon it, and parts of a private correspondence between Mr. Moore and myself. Both these publications are in many places so inaccurate as to be unintelligible. Had I foreseen them, I should have endeavored to have rendered the deposition more worthy of a public appearance, and my private letters would never have been written. My inducement to lay the whole of my view of the subject before the public, is, principally, that it may be correctly and fully before them, unaccompanied by any thing that relates to me personally. It is, in fact, of no consequence that the public should know in what manner the interests or the tempers of individuals have operated in the discussion of the practical effects of adopting one or other of two modes of effecting a public benefit. The old adage, that, in every dispute, he that is first angry is wrong, should be remembered, in all such discussions, by professional men, on whose reputation depend their means of existence. The public are always more amused by personality than by argument: but the power to amuse is not that which ensures respect. On these considerations, I have avoided any remarks on the personality of Mr. Moore's comments, excepting in cases in which my personal defence involved my argument. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
