government, has driven me lo the mortifying necessity of since procuring the certificate of the gentlemen who were witnesses to the transaction. The foregoing certificate, appended to the statement of facts, has annexed to it, with two or three exceptions, the names of all those in our Lown who were present during the time of the sale, and of the whole affair. Without entering into a critical review of his excellency's message, I cannot but feel astonished that he should so far descend from the station to which he has been exalted, or that he should so far transcend the duties of his office as lo combine with one or more, either directly or indirectly, lo animadvert upon the private characters of a few of his fellow-citizens, ranking them with plunderers and pirates, and branding them with the unmeaning, and vulgar epithet of "bone pickers" when a statement of the whole transaction, signed by the only one authorized, and since verified and substantiated by the proper signatures of many of our citizens, witnesses, and engaged in the same affair, was within his view. But the words themselves are the best representatives of their meaning; I here offer you an extract: "I herewith transmit for your information, documents received from various persons, touching a wrecked vessel near the port of Matagorda. That the unfortunate should receive the treatment as indicated in those communications, is truly to be lamented." In almost the next sentence, and in reference to the same affair, he further says, "Our sea coast has for years presented nothing but a scene of fraud, corruption and piracies to the unfortunate, who, either by misfortune or design, have been driven on our shores." Now, not only the text, but the whole context, seems replete with either charges or animadversions against not only the honorable, but the honest character of the individuals concerned in the re-capture of the Hannah Elizabeth, and more especially against captain W. A. Hurd and myself. As captain Hurd is at present in the United States, it becomes necessary for me lo make this statement, nol doubting that on his arrival, he will know perfectly well how to satisfy his own honor. I would fain extend and observe towards his excellency, that respect and reserve which his office would seem lo demand; but, being as himself, a republican, and having early imbibed the liberal sentiments which its principles warrant, it may not be surprising that I claim that most liberal and humane part upon
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