‘Dear Rogers,—You are one of the few persons with whom I have lived in what is called intimacy, and have heard me at times conversing on the untoward topic of my recent family disquietudes. Will you have the goodness to say to me at once, whether you ever heard me speak of her with disrespect, with unkindness, or defending myself at her expense by any serious imputation of any description against her? Did you never hear me say “that when there was a right and a wrong she had the right”?
‘The reason I put these questions to you or other of my friends is because I am said, by her and hers, to have resorted to such means of exculpation.
