Messr
Gentlemen,
I respectfully ask your attention to the following copies of a card signed by Mr Dexter and others of this city; of an article from the New Your Journal of Commerce, by John L. H. Mc Cracken Esq. of New York who is probably known to you at least by reputation; and of a certificate by Robert E Apthorp(?) Esq of this city. I shall take an early opportunity to call upon you, and ask a contribution in behalf of Mr Spooner. If you should wish any further evidence than is afforded by these articles, that Mr Spooner was the principle agent in effecting the reduction of postage, I would ask you to look at the pamphlet, which I take the liberty of handing to you herewith, entitled “Who Caused the Reduction of Postage? Ought he to be Paid?” and especially to the certificates (on pages 18, 19, & 20), of Hon. Rufus Choate, Hon. Franklin Dexter, Hon Simon Greenleaf, Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Judge Rent, Hon. William H. Seward, and Hon. Robert Rountoul(?) Jr. –
Very Respectfully,
Your Obt. Servant
John C. Wyman
Copy
“Since Me Spooner’s pamphlet entitled “Who Caused the Reduction in Postage? Ought he to be Paid?” was published, I have made myself familiar with the sources of evidence in favor of the justice of his claim, partly independent of those named in his pamphlet, and corroborative of them; and have verified such of these as admitted of any question. I have also examined the grounds of the several claims of Mr Barnabas Bates and Mr Hale and cannot perceive that by their own showing, Mr Spooner’s equitable title to the honor of this public service is in the slightest degree weakend.
Mr Bates has wealthy and influential friends to press his claims upon public attention (an advantage which Mr Spooner wholly lacks), and in the face of Mr Spooner’s overwhelming facts a subscription for Mr Bates has been already opened in N. York and Philadelphia, and will probably be attempted in Boston; and I earnestly hope there will be formed among our merchants and others benefited by this great reform, zeal enough for the right to examine the evidences which substantiate the claim of their townsman before they give to a stranger their contribution towards a reward which the former has so ably and so justly earned at so great an expense of time and resources.
R.E. Apthorp –