WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1830
148
know what the conversation was between you and Mr. Blake,3 or that you had any on the subject. To Mr. Prentiss,◄ I presume there was nothing said, as Blake told me that he had got P. to put in for him; so, if he withdrew one, I suppose both were withdrawn. To act in good faith with all parties, and to get just as much :from the Government as will indemnify us for the use of the capital employed, and the labor bestowed, is what I wish; and further, to do ample justice to the Indians 111 giving to them full ration, and of good quality, should we get the contract, must be regarded as a "sine qua non" with us. If you and Mr. Rose can obtain the contract upon the foregoing premises, I will be happy to unite with you jointly, and will furnish the capital necessary for the next six or nine months. So if you get it, it will be necessary for one of you to be out before fall! The other may take his station about Cincinnati, and watch the fall market. All this if emigration goes on with the Indians. If needful, you are hereby authorized to sign my name to the bond, and bind me, equally with yourself and Mr. Rose, for the performance of the contract. . . . May God ever bless you. Write me at Nashville within one week, or to Cantonment Gib- son, A., after that time. Ever thine, truly, Sam Houston. Gen. John Van Fossenn [Endorsed and directed]: "To Gen. Jno. Van Fossen, Wash- ington City, C. District. Mr. Rose." [Certification]: We do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and exact copy of a letter with the endorsement and direc- tion thereon, which was delivered to us, enclosed in a communica- tion in writing from Samuel Houston, excepting certain parts of said letter omitted at the said places marked with asterisks, which we considered wholly irrelevant to the subject of any contract whatever for the supplying rations for emigrating Indians; and we have marked this copy A.
James M. Wayne John Leeds Kerr
;- JReports of Committees, House of Representatives, 22d Congress, 1st Sess., Vol. V, Doc. 602, pp. 36-37. Extract in Grant Foreman, Pionec1· Days in tho Early Southwest, 187-188. :!Robert Selden Rose (February 24, 1774-November 24, 1835), was a mem- ber of Congress from New York from 1823 to 1831. See Reports of Com- mittees, House of Representatives, 1st Sess., 22d Cong., Vol. V, Doc. 602,
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