Analysis and refutation of the Statements of facts in relation to the expulsion of James C. Cross from Transylvania University --recently published by Dudley, Mitchell & Peter / by James Conquest Cross.

  • Cross, James Conquest.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Analysis and refutation of the Statements of facts in relation to the expulsion of James C. Cross from Transylvania University --recently published by Dudley, Mitchell & Peter / by James Conquest Cross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    15/42
    u character; it appeal's utterly impossible for him to p;iss a single day without engaging in sonic knavish intrigue to circumvent and injure some one1 Now, I ask the reader to pause and reflect a moment upon my situation, had Dr. Dudley succeeded in defeating my election before the Board of Trustees. Confiding in the assuran- ces 1 had received from Dr.. Richardson and himself in person, while in Lexington and af- terwards in Cincinnati, through Dr. Pawling, it is evident that as i had resigned my Chair in the Medical College of Ohio, before hear- ing the result of the action of the Board of Trustees of Transylvania University upon my .nomination, I would have been without a professorship altogether. Upon such attro- cious Machiavelian conduct 1 will not pause to comment, for every man in whose heart there is a sentiment of honor will say that it stands forward in all the harshness of unmiti- gated crime, without a single alleviating cir- cumstance to conciliate resentment or propi- tiate regard. Could such proofs of utterly hopeless prof- ligacy inspire a man of even the yulgarest no- tions of honor, with any other feelings than those of deep and rancorous animosity! Dr. Dudley had hardly escaped unwhipped of justice, for an outrage which has caused him to loose the confidence of every honorble man, beyond the hope of condonation before his ma- *Besides the confidence inspired by the air of sincerity with which the above statement of Dr. Richardson was made, the conduct which he reported to me was so charac- teristic of the man that DO one who knows him will think of questioning its accuracy. His life Hiving been wasted in intrigue and stratagem, and having been obliged as a con equence to resort, at one time or other, to the almost endless subterfuges of hypocrisy, for the purpose of at- taining his cuds or concealing his delinquencies, all sense of justice and all respect for truth seem to have been completely obliterated from his mind. So true is this that he has adopted a peculiar and dangerous phraseology—he has substituted the pernicious word policy for those old, lime honored and decisive terms truth and justice. Ho was never known, so far as my researches have extended, and they remount to the period when he was a salesman in a dry-goods' Store, to defend or inveigh against a pro- position because it was just and proper, hut because it was politic to do so; and I have in consequence been ob- liged to hear the word policy fall with priggish owlish gravity so often from his lips that I became as tired of hearing it as the Athenians were of hearing Aristides called the Just. But the word policy used for the pur- pose of bringing truth and justice into discredit was par- ticularly offensive because of its pernicious moral influ- ence. When the young mind hears those of standing miking by-words and jests of things that cannot be too deeply reverenced, no surprise need be felt should it cease to respect them or suffer them to become high and hon- orable motives of human action. I have not been an in- attentive observer of the influence which the example of Dr. Dudley has exerted over the principles of I whom he is immediately surrounded, and I feel fully jus- tified i.-i asserting that,like the fabulous Upas thai over- shadowed and poisoned the land, it has corrupted the eling, and independent action. And 1 have been surprised and mortified to see men of sense pretend to believe that by so paltry a ma- noeuvre they justified a falsi hood and excused or pallia- ted an injustice. Such sophistry will for a while only stifle the erics of conscience. lignant and crafty spirit became restlessly im- patient to involve him in fresh acts of turpi- tude and treachery. Like Melpomene, who it is said begat her children merely to divert her melancholy. Dr. Dudley, sneaUingly and fraudulently, attempted to ruin my professori- al prospects, merely for the purpose I sup- pose, as the boys say, to keep his hand in< This inference is utterly irresistible, for at that time it is impossible for him to have had any just cause of complaint against me—indeed he seemed to smile upon ine with peculiar com- placency. But I havesince learned that when most bland, that smile is least trustworthy.— Ever since my resignation or expulsion, if the reader prefers the language of the Trio, his nephew in an article in response to those writ- ten by Dr. Pinckard, refers to a pamph- let of mine, published more than twelve years ago, in terms that prove that Dr. Dudley was not only proud of my approbation, but consid- ered himself under obligations to me. His nephew, after quoting what I had said of him in 1834. and the reader, could he refer to it, would see that itwasas much the result of pru- dence as of principle, exclaims :—'High hon- or to the generous heart that prompted such feelings, and knowing Dr. Dudley as I do, ught and unexpected homage of a man of genius gave him more sincere pleasure, than those whose bosoms are stran- gers to such impulses can imagine. For ever dealing in subterfuge and stratagem —in contrivances and craft, as the last display of his peculiar faculties had been wantonly made for my special benefit, it was impossible that I should feel for him any other than that deep and enduring animosity which wisdom holds unlawful ever. His turning from me with sentiments of disgust and abhorrence, he knows full well was the result of necessity, not of choice; for although I was unfortu- nately his colleague and thus obliged to keep my feelings under a painful subjection, 1 could not always refrain from expressing my opinion of him.* Often have I thought, when obli- ged to take his hand, for the sake of appear- ances, that had it been dangling from a tainted corpse, I would have shrunk from it with less abhorrence. It was useless for Dr. Dudley to say that The ceremony of installation was senrcely This Mitchell says happened so early as 1838, and I have no doubt he speaks the truth, but it is a wonder, for had he supposed I would thus admit it, he would have solemnh testified that I had eulogised Dr. D.from the first to the last moment of my connexion with him. I uot only told -Mitchell, I suppose, for I told others, rather sub rtjsa however, and merely for the purpose of keeprnj the world from knowing what it had no right to know, at least from me, that he not only exerted an influence to which he was not entitled, but insisted on measure- inju- rious to the School, and was guilty at eonduct that render- el Ins character odious.