At a recent meeting at Murfreesboro' Mr. Graves was present with Mr. Pendleton, the Pastor of the Baptist Church in that place. We learn, however, that he was not invited to participate in any of the Church services. This is certainly a favorable symptom of the Baptists of Middle Tennessee. They are surely recovering their health and soundness of faith, which was so seriously impaired at Lebanon. If Mr. Pendleton, among the strongest band of Mr. Graves' friends to be found in his own State, dare not invite him to officiate as a minister, surely the Baptists abroad cannot be blamed for treating him as an "heathen and a publican."The above is from Elder Howell's organ of the 2nd instant - the second number of the paper I have seen since my return from Richmond. I am astonished at Mr. Woolfolk's disposition to misrepresent. I am at a loss to know to what "recent meeting" he refers. Taking the article as it is, I say openly that it makes a flagrantly false impression. Whether Mr. W. wishes to make such an impression, is better known to him than to me. It is not true that I have on any occasion, "recent" or otherwise treated Brother Graves as I would not have done, if the farce of his "trial" so called, had not occurred. I have never felt a particle of respect for the method of the dominant party at Nashville, in regard to him, and have treated him, and expect[? blurred] to treat him, as if that action had not taken place. I have, since the important order of "exclusion" was passed, co-operated with him in the ordination of a minister - in the constitution of a church - and the observance of the Lord's supper. Mr. W. (or perhaps his informant) no doubt has an object in view. He knows that I have ever been ready to defend Brother Graves against the unjust attacks that have been made on him. And now, if he can make the impression that I am abandoning Bro. G., the influence created by such an impression will be favorable to the cause Mr. W. advocates. It is [blurred] to me to notice such a publication as the above. There is, to say the least, an exciting pleasure in being thrown into collision with a magnanimous antagonist, who has the noble qualities of the lion, but what shall I say of an opponent who possesses the ____citical [blurred] properties of the fox?
Mr. W. intimates that the Baptists of Middle Tennessee do not feel toward Brother G. as they did at Lebanon in October last. "The wish is often father to the thought." Perhaps if Mr. W. will attend the approaching meeting of the Concord Association he will learn how Bro. G. stands with that body. And possibly he may learn how the party with which he is identified, stands. - P
=========== [From the Tennessee Baptist, July 23, 1859, p. 2. CD edition of microfilm copy. Location of the article from Thomas White, Cedarville University, OH. Transcribed and scanned by Jim Duvall.]
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