The Writings of Sam Houston, Volume I

175

WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1830

the We-tump-ke council square? ,vere you not his most 0bsequious? Did you not pay the court of a lackey, or servant, to him? Did he not, on his return to Washington, appoint or cause to be appointed, your honorable self to take charge of an explor- ing party of Indians to this country? and have you not, from that clay to this, been paid at the rate of five dollars for every day? Did you not charge the Government for clothes furnished the Indians at St. Louis, about $1000, and did not Col. McKinney pass the account without vouchers? Did you not repair to Washington, and were you not introduced there by Col. Crowell and McKinney, as "Judge Blake of Alabama"? and did you not drive Col. Crow- ell's carriage back to the Creek Nation? Were you not sent to Arkansas as "Judge Blake"? and did not the Indians immediately solicit your removal, and plead for some honest Agent? Did not the nation send on two of their Chiefs, Rowley McIntosh and Benjamin Hawkins, to the city of Washington, last winter, and did not you pursue them, and say to Col. McKinney, that "they had no instructions from their nation to oppose Col. Crowell's being sent to Arkansas," when you knew it to be _the wish of the nation, and expressed in their last memorial? Did you not get reinstated by the influence of McKinney and Crowell; and Gen. Campbell, a gallant and honorable man, put out of office? Did you not assent to three annuities, and the contingent fund due for the last three years to the Creeks on Arkansas, to be placed in the hands of Col. Crowell, and sent to the old nation, to be safely kept until you could get a new supply of goods, for the firm of Blake · and Love? Did not you return to the nation, and bring with you a Mr. Bigelow, whom you permitted to sell goods in the nation, and near the Agency, without a license from, you? Did you not know that he retailed, and sold large quantities of whiskey? and did you not connive at it, and aid him, until additional orders were received by the commanding officer at Cantonment Gibson, and then, did you not betray him like Judas to the Guardhouse? When a late council of the Creek Nation petitioned for Gen. Campbell to be reinstated as their Agent, did you not send an express to the old nation, to the Crowells to counteract the influence of the council, and to order on the money to the Western Creeks, as you were expecting a supply of goods, and wished the money to meet them? You cannot answer one of these questions negatively. Nor can you excuse yourself for the turpitude of your official conduct. You sir! can urge no excuse, and your accusations against others, will not be viewed in palliation of your crimes.

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