Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/556

 and with the general affairs of the land company, I will here read a letter which appears to have been addressed by William G. Hale, on the subject of this case, on the 14th of March, 1847, to Judge Watrous, who was then at New Orleans, being the same time when the Phalen suit was pending there. ", March 14, 1847.

":—I have written several letters to you at Galveston, which your trip to New Orleans has probably prevented from reaching you. They contained some particulars which it is important for you to know, and I will briefly recapitulate them.

"Our case was docketed No. 504, nearly at the heel now, although some new appeals have come up. As the court is going over the docket regularly, and has about reached No. 250, it would be some time before we could get a hearing; but we expect to bring it in during the absence of the lawyer here, on the spring circuit. Hemphill speaks of taking a vacation in his turn. You will find more about it in my other letters. We have been looking over the case carefully, and have, we think, discovered some new points.

"Col., from Nacogdoches, was here a short time ago, and being connected through some business with Colonel, communicated to us several startling pieces of intelligence. He says Miner has been riding about his part of the country, endeavoring publicly to buy up the certificates, but the large holders, being generally men of some respectability, would not associate with him, or listen to his offers; that he was thus compelled to traffic with the lowest class of bar-room vagabonds, who palmed off upon him forged and duplicate certificates, and boasted openly of cheating him, in all the 'groggeries.'

"This may, or may not, be correct; Miner, not the seller, may have been the cheater; but it shows the necessity of additional caution, and, coupled with his former conduct, furnishes, perhaps, a good ground for restraining him in his course.

"Col. Ward refuses to patent islands. A mandamus will be necessary.

"I have inspected the titles of the Nueces, and will have an opinion ready.

"We have had a long interview with Mr. Hedgcoxe, the agent of Peters colony, and are arranging matters.

"Ever yours, ", New Orleans, Louisiana." I ask the particular attention of honorable Senators to the terms and expressions of this letter; the trading with "bar-room vagabonds"; the likelihood of the sellers of these certificates having been "cheated" in the trade; and the chuckling tone of congratulation in the assertion of the probability of "Miner being the cheater, not the seller." It is to be recollected that this letter was to Judge Watrous himself. It was about "our case." Here is the letter of the "dear friend," the counselor, the agent of a United States district and circuit judge, informing him of trades made for his (the judge's) benefit, with drunken vagabonds, and chuckling over the cheats thought to be imposed upon the dirty and miserable bar-room gangs with whom it was found necessary to carry on their criminal commerce. Here is the principal, Judge Watrous, judge of a