237
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
In a letter which I will here submit, there are some names given of members of the conspiracy, including that of Judge Watrous. "New York, November 14, 1847. Dear Sir: This will introduce to you my friend, 0. F. Johnson, Esq., on his way to Texas, where, for the future, he intends to reside. Mr. J. was here, and being one of us, was present in several conferences with Messrs. Lake, Judge Watrous, Klemm, McMillin, Williams, &c., in reference to our Texas enterprise. He can tell you all, and more than all of us could by letter. I expect to see you before the 10th December. Yours truly, J. N. Reynolds. Messrs. Martin & Co., New Orleans, Louisiana." It will be noticed that to the list of names in the letter there is the significant affix of et cetera. · It appears from the correspondence of the association, pas- sages from which I shall presently submit, that this general term even included Phalen, which was not divulged in the list referred to, although he was president of the association! Who else is included in the term, et cetera? They may be upon the bench; they may be in the Halls of Congress; they may be in positions of seeming respectability; they may be any and every- where. The country is left to imagine the extent of the con- spiracy, with enough known to stimulate the desire to know more. The plot is concerted in the city of New York, the great city for the speculative and dramatic enterprises of trade. The cur- tain rises there, and we find the clramat-is pe1·sonae, as far as revealed in the bills, in Judge Watrous, Reynolds, Lake, Klemm, Williams, and McMillen. It will be instructive of the plot to pass in review the public characters of some of the actors. J. N. Reynolds, a New York politician, ·who appears to be an active manager of the affairs of the company, is the indi- vidual of that name who was charged with receiving from Lawrence, Stone & Co., a compensation of $1,500 for lobbying a tariff scheme in Congress. Joseph L. Williams is an ex-member of Congress from Ten- nessee; was a witness in behalf of Judge Watrous, in the in- vestigation made in 1852, into the judge's official conduct as to the very frauds in which it now appears he was a confederate;
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