235
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
could be instanced where, to counties not numbering more than one hundred voters, nine hundred certificates were issued by the fraudulent action of these boards. _The amount of these false certificates reached at last to such an overwhelming number, that on the 5th day of Feburay, 1840, a law was enacted, visit- ing the most severe penalties on the crime of making, or issu- ing, or being concerned in the making of issuing any such fraudulent or forged certificates, and providing that those who issued, or dealt in, or purchased or located, or who were con- cerned in the issuing, or dealing in, or purchasing or locating these fraudulent land certificates, should be punished by thirty- nine lashes on the bare back, and by imprisonment from three to twelve months in the discretion of the judge. A law was passed about the same time, forbidding the survey of any land claimed under these certificates, until certified to be correct oy other boards of commissioners, appointed to examine into and detect the frauds by which the bounty of the Republic had been abused, and an attempt made to despoil it of its domain. Senators will be enabled, by the light of the legislation to which I have referred, to comprehend, on unimpeachable author- ity, the distressed and terrible condition of affairs in Texas, about the year 1840, with reference to her public lands. It is not necessary to accept the truth of the statement of the enor- mous and frightful frauds, which threatened to devastate the Republic, robbing it of millions of acres of its public domain, on the faith of the popular clamor, or even on that of the general history of the time; for we have here the special and severe legislation of the State, attesting the justice of the pub- lic alarm, and defending her interests against the advances of the stupendous fraud that threatened to ingulph the fortunes of herself and of her people. To this we may even add the high testimony of the Supreme Court of ·the United States, which at a subsequent date we find confirming the just causes of terror that had so agitated the Republic of Texas on the subject of these certifi~ates, in the following terms: "Immense numbers of these certificates were put in circula- tion, either forged or fraudulently obtained, which, if confirmed by surveys and patents, would soon have absorbed all the vacant lands of the Republic." . To those who were adventurous in crime and daring in its exploits, a rich and tempting field was opened in the wide extent of these fraudulent land certificates. Detection was dangerous; but the prize was great in proportion to the danger. It was
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