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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
Board, as well as what the law specially names shall be recorded towit the name of the applicant, The date of his or her emigration, the amount of Land [grant] ed, and the name of the Witnesses, T.his being Specially named in the law, and the Board of Commis- sioners having been appointed by Congress and sworn to ad,judic.ate the Claims according to law and not anticipating another 'rribunal to investigate their adjudication, The propriety therefore, of writ- ing down the Testimony of ever witness w.as not suggested to my mind, nor neither has it ever been suggested to me by any person who have examined my records before, of which there hath been many, even attorneys, and men of service and experience, At the opcmng of the office, knowing myself fallable, and not having had the experience of many other men, and wishing no Injustice or in- convenience to accrue to the Government or to the Citizens who might be concerned with my official business, I Therefore colected for a Duputy, Judge T.arrant the Chief Justice of Red river County, who was not only a Counsellor at law, but an old experienced Clerk of the Court, and the president of the Board likewise being a coun- sellor at law and quite an efficient man of business, Cpnsiquently, m the midst of such Counsel it was reasonable to supose that the Government and the people would have justice administered, But should a deficientcy of my record prove prejudicial to the Gov- ernment or the Citizens, I shall be truely mortified, but S,ir, I am sensible that were you acquainted with the evidence on which every grant of land have been Tested before this Board you would not .conceive that those frauds (if any) could be detected by a full pre- sentment on the face of the record of the TestimQUy as stated by the witnesses, There hath not one Certificate Issued from this Board on the deposition of Witnes:l.es, taken before a 1\Iajistrate, I believe in a few cases where there was a lack of the proper number of -witnesses, to prove the Emigration or Continued residence of an individual, a soldiers discharge or some other official document was recieved and Considered Satisfactory as a part of [the] evidence, I do not pretend to say that there has been no frauds practiced upon this Board of Commissioners. I believe their has been cases of that kind, but they could not be detected through a presentment on the Docket of what was proven by the -witnesses before the Board, But nevertheless, If a presentment of all the Testimony spread upon the Record shoiuld be wanting to Justify the Government in patenting our lands, it will still add new difficulties and distress to those of the Citizens of Red River County whos,e claims on the Government have been Guaranteed to them by the Constitution and laws of the Republic, and who to sustain the Government have encountered many serious difficulties, hardships and privations, having in many instances been driven from their homes, having• to abandon the culture of the soil, the only means of supporting their families, and with no other hope to bouey up their spirits, but what rested on the promises of the Government, they have fearlesly sallied forth and with untiring vigilance saught the retreat of the foes of our Coun- try in the :rnvage wilds, far -West, Thus having no substantial means of support and their little stock if .any still dwindling to chaos, and
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