WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
55
"1st. In that the said E. W. Moore did not report at Galveston with the vessels under his command, as ordered to do, on the 5th November, 1842, reiterated on the 16th of the same month. "2d. In that the said E.W. Moore did not report in conformity with the orders issued to him on the 2d December, 1842, and 2d January, 1842, requiring him to sail for Galveston, and after preparing his report, as ordered in October previous, to report in person to the Department-but refused in like manner to obey. "3d. In that the said E. W. Moore did, on or about the 27th February, 1842, receive peremptory orders, under date 22d January, of the same year, to leave the vessels then under his command in the port of New Orleans, under the command of the senior officer present, and repair without delay to this place, (Washington,) and report to this Department in person; to which he likewise refused obedience in the most positive and unequivocal terms. "4th. In that the said E. W. Moore did, on or about the 3d April, 1843, receive from this Department an order of suspension from all command, dated on the 21st of March, of the same year, requiring him to report, in arrest, to the Department in person, and notifying him that any interference on his part with the command, or with those who had been directed to assume it, would be regarded by the Government as mutiny and sedition; to which he also refused obedience, and continued to exercise the functions of commander of the navy. "The Executive is satisfied, from an attentive examination of the proceedings of the court martial which tried the said Captain Moore, that the verdict of the court in regard to the above was just, and fully sustained by the testimony adduced. The trial appears to have been an impartial one-the accused had the benefit of witnesses brought from distant parts at the public expense, and the aid of competent counsel in his defense. "Captain Moore therefore stands duly convicted by a court having competent jurisdiction of very aggravated offences. The penalty for these offences which the court had not the authority to enforce, is applied by the law; and dismissal from the service is the slightest punishment which it enforces. "The joint resolution proposes to release him from the effect of the court's sentence and reinstate him in his command and emoluments. From the decision and sentence of a court of the country, the Executive alone has ·the power of pardon by the
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