Your favour [favor] by Mr. Trabue came duly to hand with your sisters relinquishment of the lot I purchased from you which I presume will now be all correct— Joseph P. Brown I have now occasion to call on you as a man, a christian, and as a friend, to state fully and explicitly whether you recd. [received] a letter from Mr. Jas [James] Jones villifying [vilifying] my character and that of my nephew Arch. [Archibald] Campbell dated in July or August I think, if so you will furnish me with a copy of the same and I pledge myself that your name shall not be mentioned by me, and at the same time you are at liberty to communicate any thing in this letter, or in any I ever wrote to you, to any one who has any interest in their contents. I wish to know whether you communicated to Mr. West (as requested by Mr. Jones) the contents of Mr. Jone's letter of last July or August? and whether Mr. Shirley became acquainted with the contents of that letter? Your prompt and candid

answers to these questions will be expected as soon as convenient I would barely mention to you that I expect full and explicit answers, I have confidence in you now, and hope that the answers which I may recieve [receive] may not be the means of destroying that confidence, and compel me to place you on the same level with Mr. Jones — I will not however suppose for a moment that you can act in this way, untill [until] I receive your answer to this letter — that will place you where you ought to be on the mind of

Yours &C [et cetera] John Gill Junr. [added: Your answer to this letter will have to be prompt as circumstances may compel me to come out with my knowledge of Jone's conduct by the first of June, therefore write at once, and by so doing you may save me the trouble of taking out a commission to have You, Mr. Shirley and Mr. West examined under oath — the facts I must have at any expense —]

Dr. [Dear] Sir

I write you according to promise to let you know how things move along in our city, and I regret that it is not in my power to give you a favourable [favorable] account of affairs. From the time you left us business became more and more dull untill now it is literally as flat as a pancake. There is nothing doing and people appear to have lost all nerve & energy exhibiting no disposition to buy or sell goods but on the contrary holding back and avoiding it. This is emphatically the situation of our concern. We have had so much quarrelling & discord and a certain "malign influence" has been so unwearied in their exertions against us, doing every thing calculated to injure and annoy us (particularly since the departure of our Mr. F.) that it requires the utmost care & prudence and the greatest caution in conducting our affairs, untill such time as the situation of the old business will allow us to cut loose and be separate. This I hope will not be long, for my part I have unalterably made up my mind to a separation at the earliest opportunity "peaceably if we can forcibly if we must."

You are well acquainted with the parties alluded to and can fully appreciate our situation (altho to a stranger it might seem a matter

of mystery). and it is unnecessary to say more [added: to you] on the subject

I should like to have a few moments conversation with you on your own private affairs, in relation to the party above alluded to. Something must have occurred after the conversations we had together to dispose them unfavourably towards you. A few days after you left the young one intimated that they had heretofore supposed you a sober moral man and industrious man and that the [unclear: uncle ] had consequently felt a lively interest in your welfare, had lent you money to go into the concern of which you are now a partner, and had done you sundry other benefits and favours too tedious to mention — that now they had ascertained you were intemperate, and a profane swearer; and that had he (the young one) known it in time, he would not have consented to let you have so many goods. Now I should like above all things to know what prejudice or feeling is lurking at the bottom of this affair, convinced as I am of the utter falsity of the accusation I am at a loss to account for their desire to injure you, except that having discovered a friendly disposition on your part towards F and myself, they are determined that you shall be a sharer of the hatred existing in their minds towards us. Believing this to be the cause, and unwilling

that your good feelings towards us should create you such enemies, and relying implicitly on your silence and discretion, I feel it is my duty to give you this information, advising you to be cautious and guarded gaining all the information you can and drawing your own conclusions

I must confess the information was such as to astonish and confound me and I yet doubt to what species of malignity to attribute it; if you can enlighten me on this subject you will oblige, and I shall expect you to do so. The circumstance has never been named by me to any one— even to Fergn. [Ferguson] and I know you will consider yourself strictly bound in honor to preserve the same secrecy on your part nothing but a sense of duty towards you, (having suffered so much in like manner myself,) could induce me to name it even to you, and it is not now done to injure them, but to cause you to be on your guard to escape injury yourself. So much for private affairs — now as to business. We have had (as we both anticipated) very hard times, and I fear the worst is to come. Many of the Market St. [Street] houses have failed or retired from business. Since you were here Bent Wyman & Co. [Company] Carnog Armstrong &Co. Wm [William] V Vettit . Campbell Jones & [unclear: Opie ]. Sappington & Gemmill, Knowles Shroeder & McCallie and others, may be added to those of the first named class who had already

stopped before you left us, and Synn & Nixon Songstreth & Mather Marache & others have "retired in disgust" whether with whole bones or not I cannot say. The lame ducks are moving very slowly. I Vogue &Co Want to get into a smaller store and L. Robert & Co appear to be laid on the shelf the firm is dissolved and I think they will have to come to a final stand still before long. Asher Howell has dissolved with Abbott and has nothing to attend to at present but Genl. [General] Jackson and the affairs of the nation. You can say to Mr. West that his papers directed to F. S. & C. & G. Handy have been received, and you can further tell him (should you think it advisable) that his friend G. is exceedingly angry at the arrangement made for G. F & Cos debt and has written an angry letter to Ferguson on the subject. He says West has treated "us as usual worse than any body else." He and I have had an open quarrel a day or two since, in consequence of his withholding these papers from Mr. Woods & Mr. Handy and pretending that he had never seen them, altho [although] I proved on the spot by the evidence of the young men who were present when I handed him West's letter and papers the evening they arrived, and who were witnesses to the conversation that took place between us at the time and heard him make

use of the remark alluded to above. I cannot yet say whether this management of his will be prejudicial to Mr. West's interest. His motive for doing so has not yet developed itself but certain it is that he suffered Mr. Woods to leave the city without seeing the papers and as all his conversations on the subject were private and apart I remained in entire ignorance of what was going on untill [until] after Mr. Woods departure. Should you think it necessary to communicate these facts to West, it must of course be done in the strictest confidence. I am not afraid of his honour, and I think I am bound to guard against the misrepresentations that may be made to him on the subject, for whatever injury may grow out of such duplicity will of course be fathered upon me —,

Copy of J . John's letter to J. P. Brown, with J P Brown's letter to J. G. [John Gill] Jr. & his answer to same