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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859 .
prove that he not only stated what was untrue, but was con- strained to convict himself of it before the committee that inquired into his conduct. · In his answer to what I have reference, Judge Watrous has the effrontery to assert that his ruling in the case of the Union Bank vs. Stafford, 5 on the statute of limitations, brought upon him the censure and denunciation conveyed in the reso- lutions of the Legislature. This was worse than puerility, for it proved to be utterly untrue. The Stafford suit was not even instituted until some months after the resolution had been passed by the Legislature. This essential fact Judge Watrous thought to suppress; but when the committee called for witnesses from Texas, and he had reason to suppose that his falsehood would be detected, he was then fain to acknowledge it, and make the humiliating and self-convicting request of the committee to withdraw his answer, committing him to the falsehood, from the files, so that he might suppress the public evidence of his infamy, at least in this particular. In 1852, the matter of the judge's nefarious dealings in fraudulent land certificates, was brought to the attention of Congress, and this charge among other matters of crimination, was assigned against the judge, in a memorial of William Alex- ander, a citizen of Texas. Only three witnesses, however, out of twenty-one asked for by the prosecution, were sent for, and not any single one of the specifications pending against the judge. The committee reported the evidence insufficient; the House failed to act in any way on the matter, and the facts, therefore, of the case, remained undeveloped and occult, and the justice of it unvindicated. The Legislature of Texas, at its last session, instructed the ~epresentatives of that State to urge the trial of Judge Watrous on all the charges against him; and in obedience to these in- structions, the Hon. Mr. Reagan, who in part, represents the State in the other branch of Congress, had the memorial of Mr. Alexander taken from the files, and referred to the Judiciary Committee for investigation. Mr. Reagan urged an investiga- tion of the charges contained in that memorial, and in his speech in the House on that subject, states: "I also offered to the committee to make the charge against Judge Watrous that he had sold three fraudu- lent league certificates to a gentleman by the name of Lowe, of Illinois, for about six thousand dollars, when
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