_Mr. Freeman"s challenge, and Mr. Green"s acceptance, as published in the papers of the city of Philadelphia._
From the Inquirer.
It is well known that Mr. Green, the Reformed Gambler, gave a Lecture at the Museum on Monday night last, in which he exposed the arts and devices of the Gambling Fraternity of the Union. His audience was quite large, and his ill.u.s.trations were listened to with no little interest.
It seems from the following article, which we copy from the Sun of yesterday, that a professional Gambler was present. His Card or Challenge is quite a curiosity:
Mr. Editor:--Having attended the Lecture of J. H. Green, last evening, at the Chinese Museum, on the popular vice of Gambling, and differing from him in each and in every view which he took, and which he is in the habit of taking upon that subject, I beg leave respectfully to say to him through the medium of your columns, that I have made up my mind to confront him in debate, in regard to the right and wrong of the subject in question. I say, I am willing so to do, provided it meets his views, and those of the community. If he, and those who admire his theory, are the friends of truth, surely they will not shrink from investigation?--and if I cannot sustain myself in debate, why, his triumph will add strength to his cause.
With regard to _who_ I am, I will say in a single word that I am a professional Gambler. I shall set out, if we meet, to prove to the audience, among other things, that in his ill.u.s.trations of the cheatery which he says the gambler practices upon his victim, he is actually at that very moment practising a palpable cheat upon the very audience which he is proposing to enlighten. As regards any profits that may arise from such a meeting, I want none, although perhaps as needy as Mr.
Green.
As regards experience in debate, Mr. G. has decidedly the advantage of me in that respect. I have had the honour of addressing public audiences four times in my whole life, and but four--two of these were in favour of Old Tip, in 1840, and the other two upon the subject of temperance. I am well aware that there are many persons who would look upon it as a sort of inconsistency that a man, occupying my position, should be the honest advocate of temperance--but they so reason because they are uninformed in regard to the higher order of gambling!
Should Mr. Green accede to my proposition, he only has to name his time and place--or if he prefers to have a personal interview, he can do so.
I am willing to wait on him at his boarding-house, but would like to have at least one respectable person present to hear all that pa.s.ses between us.
J.G. FREEMAN.
N.B.--I am a native of South Carolina; I am known from Virginia to Orleans. Mr. Green I have seen in that city, and he no doubt recollects me, though I never had any intimacy with him.
We publish below another communication from Mr. Freeman, in which he announces that Mr. Green has accepted his challenge to debate, and lays down his points for argument. We are glad of this, and have no doubt the public will share in our curiosity to know what kind of a defence can be made by a gambler, even so _polished_ as Mr. Freeman, for a vice fitly characterized by Mr. Green as "fifty per cent. worse than stealing."
Expectation is on tiptoe.
Communicated for the Sun.
Mr. Editor--I return to you my sincere thanks for having kindly published my letter to Mr. J. H. Green, the reformed gambler; and beg leave now to state to you, that I have had an interview with him, and that he fully consents to go into the debate. It now devolves upon me, since I have a.s.sumed the character of _plaintiff_ in the action, to define minutely the exact points to be discussed.
The first position, then, that I shall a.s.sume, is that all those states in this Union that have enacted very severe laws against gambling, such as making it a penitentiary offence, &c., have acted both tyrannically and unwisely--_tyrannically_, because they are an infringement upon those sacred reserved rights that never were yielded in what law commentators call the "social compact"--and _unwise_, because their tendency is to generate immorality rather than stop it.
The second ground that I shall take, is that the character of that cla.s.s of beings called "gamblers" is less understood by the community at large, and especially by that portion of it that have had no intercourse with them, than any cla.s.s of men in the world. That it has ever been the misfortune of the gambler to be misrepresented, not only of late by Mr.
Green, but generally by those that have attempted to portray his character in the prints.
I shall undertake to show him up in his true character, making it neither better nor worse than it really is--"_Let justice be done if the heavens fall._"
In the third place, I shall propose to prove beyond question, that cheating at cards is decidedly the most unfortunate thing for the cause of gambling and gamblers, that possibly could exist. And on the other hand, that it is the very saviour of that portion of mankind who have a sneaking fondness for play.
In the fourth place, I will attempt to prove that those tricks that Mr.
Green is in the habit of ill.u.s.trating with cards, are entirely worthless; that they can _not_ be reduced to practice; that if they can, it must be on persons wholly dest.i.tute of common sense; that an opinion that he can tell any cards by the back, is entirely untrue; that neither he nor any other man can do any such thing, unless the cards have been marked either by himself or some other person.
In the course of those proceedings, I shall take upon myself, for the benefit of the young and inexperienced who may be present, to make such developments as will be of lasting importance to them in their sojourn through this mazy world; for, as Mr. Calhoun once said of the Const.i.tution of the United States, if there be any one man that loves innocent youth better than all others, I claim to be that man. To seduce one into _any_ vicious habit when uncontaminated, is a thing I would _scorn_ to do. And the pleasure which I feel, when I reflect upon it, of having actually saved some half dozen from ruin, is to me unspeakable.
But for this I know I am never to be credited; for Mr. Green has informed us that the gambler is _hardened_, for he never goes to church, and if you reach him at all it must be with a penitentiary act.
But, pardon me, Messrs. Editors, this is not the time nor the place for the argument.
Yours, respectfully, J.G. FREEMAN.
Mr. Green says he will inform me on to-morrow when it will suit to have the meeting.
Mr. Green, it will be seen by the following letter, has consented to meet his challenger in debate on the subject of gambling. We are glad of this, inasmuch as Mr. Freeman is said to be quite an intelligent gentleman, and stands at the head of his _profession_. The discussion, if conducted in a proper spirit, will be attended by good results.--ED.
For the Daily Sun.
Philadelphia, April 29, 1847.
_Messrs. Barrett & Jones_:--In the "Sun" of the 28th and 29th inst. are two communications, over the signature of J.G. Freeman, proposing to controvert my positions relative to the gamblers, and challenging me to a public discussion.
This individual called upon me after the publication of his first letter, and seemed to be honest in his intentions to defend his system of untold enormities. If the public, therefore, can be benefited, and my reformatory purpose in this particular promoted, as I suspect it will, I would rather court than avoid such an interview.
I have long wished for, but certainly never expected such a discussion.
I see the shoe begins to pinch. I am glad to perceive that those for whom it was made are beginning to feel and cry aloud. Just as I antic.i.p.ated, the _law_ seems to be the part which binds most. Men who are most without conscience are generally most restive in view of a threatening penitentiary.
I will accept the challenge to meet him on the several points proposed in his communications. Indeed I am happy that he has chosen his own grounds; for the best which such opposition could select is likely in all conscience to be bad enough.
Suffer me therefore to say to your correspondent that I intend lecturing on the evenings of the 10th, 13th, and 15th of the coming month, (May,) at the Lecture-room of the Chinese Museum, on George street; at which times I will be very happy if he will attend and defend such positions as are a.s.sumed in the two communications alluded to.
I shall require, however, that a committee of gentlemen be chosen to control the discussion.
J. H. GREEN.
The Lecture-room of the Museum will, we think, be found much too small to accommodate the audience, who desire to be present on these interesting occasions. Would it not be better to take the upper part of the Museum building? It would certainly be filled.--ED.
Messrs. Editors:--There is a feature in Mr. Green"s acceptance to my challenge to meet him in debate upon the subject of gambling, with which I frankly confess I am not at all pleased. Upon looking over it, you will discover that he uses the following language: "Suffer me, therefore, to say to your correspondent, that I intend lecturing on the evenings of the 10th, 13th, and 15th of the coming month, (May,) at the lecture-room of the Chinese Museum, on George street; at which time I will be very happy if he will attend and defend such positions as are a.s.sumed in the two communications alluded to." Now, I should like to know Mr. Green"s motive for calling a _debate_ a _lecture_? Why not call things by their right names?
You will, therefore, Messrs. Editors, be pleased to inform your correspondent, Mr. Green, that I cordially consent to meet him at the time and place designated by him, for the purpose of _debating_ the gambling question; and the cash which may be taken at the door to be divided between us, if any, after all the expenses are paid, or to be disposed of in such a manner as the committee may deem just and proper.
"Tis true, I did say in my first communication that I did not care to have any of the money, and I so felt and so thought at that time; but since, I have employed some reflection upon the subject, and, like some of our modern politicians, I have _changed_. "Tis true that money is no part of the motive, but then, as Mr. Polk once expressed himself in regard to the tariff and protection, I am willing that it should come in _incidentally_.
Now, it falls to my lot to know much more of the history of Mr. Green than any of those who know it only from his own statements and publications. About four or five years ago, in the city of New York, I became acquainted with a gentleman by the name of Ball, a dealer in ivory; this Mr. B. exhibited a large quant.i.ty of Mr. Green"s cheating cards, and said that Mr. Green was largely in his debt, and that his only way to make the debt was to sell those cards, and asked me to buy.
He then took me into another room and exhibited to me some very costly machinery, and certainly the strangest I had ever seen;--it had been invented by Mr. Green to put a sign on white-back cards, so as to know them by the backs. He also showed me other stamps invented by Mr. Green.
Now the consummation of this work had cost Mr. Green not only much valuable time, but all the money he could possibly borrow; but, after all, the thing ends in disaster--the cards don"t sell. Desperation seizes upon him. Like Arnold, he now throws his eye over to the other camp, and thinks what might be done in the way of a reward. He consoles himself with the reflection that he will, at least, be upon the side of virtue: "I will tell the public that my only motive is to benefit the rising generation, (a profitable thought with Mr. Green, "the rising generation"); but in order to begin right, I will publish to the world a full history of my life, in which it will devolve upon me to make a confession of my sins. All, I will disclose to the world; but as to that ponderous machinery at Mr. Ball"s in New York--I rather think I will skip that."
Now when poverty pinched the prodigal son, as it did Mr. Green in New York, what was the language of that truly penitent. Alluding to his old father, he says: "I will go and tell _all_ I ever done, &c." But when Mr. Green resolves to put on a mask of penitence, what is his course? I will go and tell those good ministers of the gospel, and others, _half_ I ever done, &c., and then take good care to run my hand as deep into their purses as possible.
Now in Mr. Green"s crusade against gambling and gamblers, if he had shown signs of purity of motive, and had not wantonly and knowingly misrepresented the men, and disguised the facts in regard to the profession, I would be the last man living to impugn him. But the motive, I consider, was _corrupt_--"twas spoils;--and in the mode of attack, the established principle in morals has _not_ been regarded, which is, that the means in the accomplishment of any public good must always be as honest as the ends; and for these reasons I do feel sanguine in the belief, when the trial comes off at the Chinese Museum next week, that if I do not get the verdict, I shall do more--I shall deserve it.
Yours, &c. J.G. FREEMAN.
N.B.--If the gentlemen, editors generally, of this city, will give the above communication a place in their columns, with such comments as they may think fit to make, they will confer a favour upon one of the proscribed, but one who suffers no man to stand in front of him as a lover of truth.
J.G.F.
Communicated for the Sun.
_Messrs. Barrett & Jones_:--I had supposed that my consent to Mr.
Freeman"s request to be heard in defence of his fraternity, had fixed that issue. I did not intend by the announcement of my lecturing on the evenings alluded to by Mr. F., that they were to be any thing more than a fair discussion of the character and tendencies of gambling, if Mr. F.