WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1831-1832
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lossed all confidence in him. You have not said one word about the letter in which I enclosed Whartons !Ii What say you about Noland? Will you please send me some word or let me know, who all are named, as Grantees, in the Rio Grande Speculation- Write forthwith to me, and do answer all these matters. I will write so long as I remain here. Sam Houston Mr. Jas. Prentiss [ Endorsed on front] : Genl Saml Houston 28 June 1832 1 James Pr6ntiss Letters, The University of Texas Library. 2 This letter is not available. 3 William Cranch (July 17, 1769-September 1, 1855), jurist, was born at Weymouth, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard, February, 1784, and grad- uated therefrom in the same class with his friend and cousin, John Quincy Adams. He studied law and set up his practice at Haverhill. In -1801 President Adams appointed him junior assistant judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. This began an association with the courts that lasted fifty-four years. In 1802 he became reporter for the Supreme Court and published Revo1·ts of Cases A1·gnecl and Adjudged in the Su71reme Com·t of the United States, 1801-1815 (9 vols., 1804-1817). Much to the astonishment of the general public, Jefferson retained Cranch, and appointed him Chief Justice of the District Court. He remained Chief Justice of the District Court for fifty years. His opinions are distinguished for accuracy and logic; only two of them were ever reversed. In this letter Houston calls him I. Cranch, no reason is known for this error. William Cranch was certainly the judge who tried Houston's case in the District Court of Columbia in 1832. See Dictionary of Ame1-ican Biogravhy, IV, 502, for a good biographical sketch. . 4 Nathaniel Pitcher (1777-May 25, 1836) was born in Connecticut but moved to New York when he was very young. Very little is known about this man's public or private life, and his biographers have been able to gather only the barest facts of his life. He was a member of the New York Legislature, 1806-1808, and again from 1815 to 1817. He was a staunch Democrat, a loyal Jackson man, and fiercely opposed DeWitt Clinton, not- withstanding the fact that he had been Lieutenant Governor at the same time that Clinton was Governor of New York, and when Clinton died, he became Governor. Pitcher was Governor of New York from 1828 to 1833. See Biogravhical Dfrecto1·y of the Amer·ican Congnss, 1415. Charles Lan-
man, Dictiona1·y of the United States Congress, 307. GSee John A. Wharton to Houston, June 2, 1831. To THE PUBLIC 1
Washington, July 9, 1832
To the Public I cannot forego the conviction that it is due to myself and the public, so far as it may be interested, in a correct under- standing as to the truth as to the part that I acted in the matter
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