Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/580

 the employment of the services of William G. Hale in the emergency. They are accordingly secured ; and no sooner so, than Hale calls to his aid John Treanor, to undertake the most unscrupulous and desperate scheme for the fabrication of evidence in Mexico, to suit their purposes. Here, it may be observed, are again introduced upon the stage the two parties who were united as principal and agent in the Cavazos case, to direct the suit by their affidavits and their collusive management, in which it appears that, by the judge lending himself to the scheme, they had been successful, Treanor, the man branded as one "without character or standing," is prepared for a trip to Mexico, to procure, on the best terms, such testimony as he can, to sustain the power of attorney; he is joined by League, and Francis J. Parker, a clerk of Judge Watrous' court.

It will be profitable to review the antecedents and relations of this man Parker, as it will be found that he figures in several important matters of fraud and chicanery, conducted through Judge Watrous' court. It will be recollected that reference was made to an order entered in Judge Watrous' court, for the exclusion, from the regular panel of jurors, of the citizens of four counties lying on the Rio Grande. From the marshal's returns in the comptroller's office, it appears that this order was strictly carried out until January, 1856, when it is discovered that it was violated in returning Mr. Francis J. Parker as one of the regular panel, at Galveston, and that he was the only citizen from the Rio Grande summoned in the face of the order, and with regard to whom the marshal had departed from the rule of the court.

Now, why was Mr. Parker "selected"? Why was he selected "two or three times"? An answer may be suggested by slightly reviewing the relations of this man to Judge Watrous, who was deeply interested, at least, in important questions pending in his court.

Parker was, in the first place, the deputy clerk of the United States court at Brownsville, over which Judge Watrous presided. He had also been appointed by the judge United States commissioner for Brownsville; and is now an itinerant commissioner on his mission to procure testimony in Mexico for the establishment of the forged power of attorney. It will be recollected that F. J. Parker was selected for jury service in this court. Edwin Shearer, also a deputy clerk, had been placed on the jury in the Ufford and Dykes case.

The progress of this man Parker, in acts of service for Judge Watrous, is next traced in his participation in the attempt made by the judge to prove up the forged power of attorney in the Lapsley cases. He appears to have been the selected custodian of this precious document, and to have accompanied to New Orleans the witness who had been obtained at an expense of $6,000.

Still further he may be traced, doing Judge Watrous' work, until at last he comes forward as a witness for Judge Watrous, before the Supreme Court of the United States, to sustain his honor in his act of corrupt oppression, depriving Mussina of his appeal in the Cavazos case.

But I will now revert to the course taken by the parties. League, Treanor, and Parker, in their mission to Mexico, with respect to the power of attorney. The three proceeded together as far as Monterey, about seventy miles