Now, gentlemen, I make no claim to special merit, if I merely make plain to you that I am a supporter of the existing constitution and have been compelled to take my own share in your dangers: but if I am found to have lived, in all other respects, a regular life, quite contrary to the opinion and statements of my enemies, I request you to pass me through and to think the worse of these persons. I will begin by showing that I did not serve in the cavalry or reside here under the Thirty, and that I had no hand in the government of that time.