WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
234
he not only retracted a former judgment of Judge Watrous' guilt, but sought to protect him by indulging in aspersions upon the State and citizens of Texas, who were his accusers. This un- called-for and wicked defamation, made before the country, calls for reply and for rebuke. The gentleman, with others who were interested with him in the defense of Judge Watrous, showed such utter disregard of the facts as to assert that the resolutions of the State urging the resignation of the judge, "grew out of the fact of a decision made by him, which touched the pockets of a good many citizens of Texas." I request the close attention of honorable Senators to a history which it is not time to divulge, of one of the most extraordinary and monstrous conspiracies ever formed by the ingenuity of man, and under the incitements of plunder. I design to make a full and authentic expose, which circumstances now call for, of a conspiracy against the public domain of Texas, of the most enormous designs, conceived in the most grasping and compre- hensive spirit of fraud, armed with the most extraordinary resources, enlisting talents and power, and all the ingenuities of intellect in its execution; involved in its progressive steps, in a secrecy that would adorn a romance, and extending, in its .rami- fications, through different parts of the Union-I know not where. The history I propose to recite, with strict adherence to the evidence in my possession, a part of which has been slumbering until this time, not designing to indulge in any asse1·tions, or in any criminations not fully warranted by the text of the testimony. In the first place, it is necessary to explain the condition of ,the public domain of Texas, at the period when the history of the appalling conspiracy referred to commenced. In the year 1837, by a general law of Texas, large donations of land were made to those who had arrived, and settled in the country previous to 1836, the date of her declaration of independence; to married men one league of land, and to those who were unmarried, one third of a league. Under this law boards of land commissioners were appointed, whose duty it was to investigate all claims on the Government for head-rights to lan~s, and to grant certificates to such persons as furnished the requisite proofs of their being entitled to the same. Many of these boards betrayed their trust, and perpetrated frauds of the most alarming magnitude, assigning large numbers of certificates to fictitious persons. These frauds came to be of the most open and notorious character; so much so, that cases
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