“After reading the Statement of Mr. Ware and Mr. Leaming with care I do not find any thing to satisfy me in legal point of view, that Mr. Townsend Sharpless is not the party against whom Mr. Budd’s action must be brought. The Mayor has furnished a copy of his Record upon which Mr. Sharpless’s liability is clear. If he can explain that away on the trial, we may be compelled to proceed against all the parties for a Conspiracy. But the injury done to Mr. Budd must be vindicated in some way. The conduct of Mess Ware & Leaming appears to me exceedingly reprehensible and I shall take great pleasure in exposing to the world their tergiversations in this matter. I am sorry for Mr. Sharpless but the gross wrong done my client was certainly done in his name and under the sanctions of this affirmation. Indeed the explanation of the Mayor, seem to add insult to injury as he gives it as his opinion that there was cause to suspect the goods would be found in Budd’s possession.”

Established in 1843, the Legal Intelligencer was the oldest law journal in the United States. Wallce, its founder, and editor for nearly fifty years, was also a practicing attorney. Townsend Sharpless was a prominent Quaker merchant who was accused by Maryland slave-owners of “enticing” their slaves to escape to freedom in Pennsylvania.