Enterprise Office,
Saturday Evening, May 21, 1864
To
James L. Laird
21 May 1864 • Virginia City, Nev. Terr.
(Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 24 May 64, UCCL 02773)
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James Laird, Esq—Sir:—
I wrote you a note this afternoon demanding a published retraction of insults that appeared in two articles in the Union of this morning—or satisfaction. I have since received what purports to be a reply, written by a person who signs himself “J. W. Wilmington,” in which he assumes the authorship and responsibility of one of said infamous articles.1 Mr. Wilmington is a person entirely unknown to me in the matter, and has nothing to do with it. In the columns of your paper you have declared your own responsibility for all articles appearing in it, and any farther attempt to make a catspaw of any other individual and thus shirk a responsibility that you had previously assumed will show that you are a cowardly sneak. I now peremptorily demand of you the satisfaction due to a gentleman—without alternative.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
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Clemens had received the following response, not from Laird (who he presumed had written “The ‘How Is
It’ Issue,” the Union’s 21 May editorial), but from the author of the
“Printer” letter, which the paper published the same day:
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Source text(s):“Personal Correspondence,” letter III, Virginia City, Territorial Enterprise, 24 May 64, clipping
in Scrapbook 3:146, Moffett Collection, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
Previous publication:
L1, 292; Benson, 183, reprinted from the Sacramento Union, 26 May 64, 2; MTEnt, 192.
Provenance:see Moffett Collection, p. 462.
Emendations and textual notes:
L. CLEMENS •
L[
] CLEMENS
