[3708] (HILL to A USTlN J
Hartford, 15Lh July, 1836
Gen. Stephen F. Austin, Sir,
On or about the 20th ultimo, l deposited al the Texian Agency in New Orleans, a letter directed to your address, to be forwarded to you, with other despatches on hoard the "Union," then at anchor in the Mississippi River. If you have received that letter, you are already informed that I was instructed by a company of Merchants in N. York, Lo proceed to Texas, to negotiate with the Texian Cabinet, a loan of half a million dollars and that speciric instructions would be sent to me at N. Orleans, lo govern my movements in the negotiation. The day after writing you the said letter, I received from N. York, not the "specific instruction,, I expected, but a peremptory revocation of my agency. This communication, after my letter of the 20th Lo you placed me in an unpleasant dilemma, from which I resolved to extricate myself, by returning promptly lo N. York, and demanding an Explanation, Lo furnish grounds for my own justification, as well as to engage my influence in removing any unfavorable impressions, which might have been made on the minds of my Employees, as to the course of the Texian struggle for independence. I arrived in N. York, the l lth inst. and sought and obtained a conference immediately, with my Employers, and received in substance, the following reasons as an apology for their course of proceeding. Shortly after my departure from N. York for Texas, the armistice between the Texian government and Santa Anna, was received, and gave them great dissatisfaction; they being of opinion, (the Wall Street Money changers, are quite self-opinionated) that inasmuch as the Mexican Army was completely in the power of the Texians, it should have been captured and annihilated. It began to he rumored, about that time, also, that the Cabinet of Texas was preparing Lo release Santa Anna, and they did not wish lo submit lo the American Government any propositions respecting a loan, until the rumor should be contradicted. I used such arguments and explanations in . vindication of the course of the Cabinet, as occurred to
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