From the Richmond Examiner, 2/26/1866, p. 3, c. 4

QUOTATIONS FROM HORACE CONTINED. – We have been accused of doing Mr. Horace L. Kent injustice by associating his honourable name with the tribe of “Ferrets,” who have no “war record” like Mr. Kent. We have always tried to picture Mr. Kent upon his proper platform, but his characteristic costumes have been so numerous in the comedy of “Twists and Turns,” that we have probably misquoted or misinterpreted his text and put him on the “Rebel” instead of the “Union” platform, and vice versa. As an act of justice to Mr. Kent, therefore, and in order, too, that we may be set right before the publick, we publish the subjoined letter written by Mr. Kent, of date

“THURSDAY, 20th April, 1865.

“Mr. Chisholm:

“Dear Sir – I regret that it will not be in my power to aid you as requested. I have no money of consequence, and must retain the little I have for the present and pressing wants of my family. I have been ruined by the dastardly villains who destroyed our city and our country, and I have neither the means nor the inclination to aid those who aided in inaugurating or supporting the cursed, cruel ------ who have ruled us for the past four years.

                                                                                                                                                 Very respectfully,
                                                                                                                                                 “HORACE L. KENT.”

The italicks are our own, thrown in to mark where the applause properly comes in, and to show that the author of the above vindicatory note never did sympathise with “Rebellion,” or those who aided and abetted in it, but was always a Union man, and never, by act or word, lent material aid or encouragement to those who were physical aiders and abettors in the rebellion.

To clear up the apparent mystification of the letter, it may be necessary to give some antecedent facts, and explain the circumstances under which the above “Union document” was written. During the war Mr. Chisholm, whose father made frequent and heavy consignments with the auction house of Kent, Paine & Co., was a frequent visitor at Mr. Kent’s hospitable mansion. Young Chisholm was a Confederate soldier, and in the course of events received a severe wound in one of the series of closing battles that preceded the fall of Richmond. He was laid up on the hospital, and while there Mr. Kent returned his visits, and assured him that he would aid him in any way he might signify. Richmond fell, and Chisholm became a prisoner, with hundreds of others. He was soon released on parole, with permission to return to his home in the South. Being without means, (what “Rebel” had means then?) he bethought him of Mr. Kent’s kind offer and wrote him asking for money sufficient to take him home. His reply is before the reader. Further argument or question as to Mr. Horace L. Kent’s original loyalty would be superfluous. He stands vindicated without even the smell or taint of secession upon his garments.

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