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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1812
461
frauds, declaring that his defeat for office was due to the opposition of the party connected with their sale. When he presented to the General Land Office of Texas specific cases of illegal proceedings, he was notified by one Joseph Goodbread that continued meddling with the matter would cost him his life. In reply, Jackson shot Goodbread dead at the town of Shelbyville. Great excitement followed; Jackson was brought to trial; the courtroom was thronged with armed men, and the judge failed to appear. Jackson then organized a society of his followers that took the name of "Regulators." This society proceeded in a very arbitrary manner, and there is no doubt that they were the cause of a good many honest men losing their lands and accummulations that were the fruit of years of hard toil. An opposition developed against the "Regulators" that itself soon became an organized society. It styled itself "Moderators." A kind of vendetta · war-fare went on between these factions for three or four years, but in 1842, the hostilities developed into open battle. (See George Crocket, Two Cen- turies in East Texas, 193-203, told, for the most part, from narratives of eye witnesses.) Seeing the country threatened by civil war, Houston ordered General James Smith to raise a militia force and put a stop to this internecine struggle. Smith raised a force of about 500 men and by the exercise of prudence and good judgment induced the belligerents to lay down their arms and submit to the laws of the Republic; but for a good many years afterward, the spirit developed by this clash of interests caused many a homicide in the disaffected districts. See Yoakum, History of Texas, II, 437- 440; Wooten (ed.), Co1nprehensive History of Texas, I, 431-432; Brown, His- to1·y of Texas, II, 295-296.
FEBRUARY, 1842
To COLONEL L. B. FRANKS 1 Executive Department, City of Austin, February 1, 1842. To Col. L. B. Franks:~ Sir-You are hereby appointed to take charge of the Lipan and Tahuacana tribes of Indians; and you will attend to the main- tenance of peace between them and the citizens of the Republic. You will remain with them in person as much as may be in your power. You will ascertain, so far as you may deem prudent or bene- ficial to our frontier safety, the disposition and wishes of the various tribes of Indians towards a peace with us; as well as the causes which have occasioned and continue to stimulate their hos- tility to the Texians. When you can obtain any information, which you regard as important to be known, you will report the same to the Execu- tive, with the least possible delay.
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