WRITINGS OF SAl\'l HOUSTON, 1830
176
Recrimination, is the subterfuge of the guilty. The innocent will first acquit themselves, and then they have the right of accusa- tion; and let me tell you, that you cannot avoid odium until you answer the charges against you; nor will your eloquent sc1'iptural denunciations explain your actions, nor conciliate the McIntosh party, nor any man who does not know how honest you are. Do you recollect, judge, when you called upon Mr. Richard Bean, (late beef contractor), and requested him to receipt to you for some forty or fitty thousand rations of beef? You do recollect it, for he says you clid request him to clo so, for a vast amount! Now, judge, hereby hangs a tale; and I will explain, though I do con- fess it was some time before I could comprehend it myself, and I I believe a learned judge is entitled to its finding out, unless be brought the science with him from the old Nation, or, it may be, that it came from Cahawba. Suppose a family of emigrants consisting of ten persons, and each person entitled to one and a half pounds of beef, per diem, about to draw rations for sixty days. The beef would amount to nine hundred pounds. Now, suppose the judge, having a list of the families, and the number of pounds, due to each one on issue days, and should hand the list to his commissaries, and they make their issues accordingly! Out of every nine hund1·ed pounds, the judge could reserve three hmi- d'red pounds, more or less, and the Indians could not detect the fraud. Now, judge, we will see how this proves itself. The abstract of issues by the contractor will be the amount actually delivered to the Indians, while there will be a wide gap between that and the amount chargeable to the Government. This gap is created by withholding from the Indians their full rations. Hence it is that the technic of "SHORT RATIONS" has had its origin. Now the deficit between the contractor's abstract, and the account of the Agent who charges for the full amount of rations, which ought to have been given to the Indians, must be made up, and if the Agent could get any person to "receipt" for the amount of the deficit, why then the Agent would get the con- tract price, for the amount receipted for as though he had actually put so much beef in the contract, say fifty thousa.11d vounds, at 2 1/2 cts. per pound, would amount to $1,250. This was objected to by Mr. Bean, who said, "no." The corn business was different; the judge had the sole management of that in his own hands. Now, judge, it can be proven, that your own com- missaries have acknowledged that they did not issue "short ra- tions," and you profess (privately) to think it strange how it was
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