WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859
254
he knew the certificates to be fraudulent, void, and worthless; and when, by the laws of Texas, to sell such certificates was a crime of the grade of forgery, and punishable with the most ignominious penalties. And I proposed to prove this charge by a part of a record which I had from the district court for Galveston County, Texas, and by the testimony of gentlemen who were then here as witnesses in his case from Texas. "But Judge Watrous resisted my right to make these charges, and the committee felt themselves bound by the action of the House on the Alexander memorial, as these were a part of the charges contained in that memorial, and declined to hear the charges. I then gave notice to Judge Watrous, and his counsel, General Cush- ing, that when the House came to act on the report of the committee I should b1:ing these things to the atten- tion of the House, so that if, by such means, he should elude a trial and escape justice, the Representatives of the people, and the people of the nation, through our proceedings, should know how it was done." Here I might rest on the proofs already submitted of Judge Watrous's deep and dire offenses in connection with the land company, to the extensive operations of which I have but briefly referred. But I conceive that the just interests of my State, and those of some of her most valued citizens, who have been injured, misrepresented, and betrayed by the machinations of this con- spiracy, require that· I should extend the narrative to other principal facts. · I have already made brief allusion to the operations and designs of the conspiracy in the direction of the Rio Grande. This branch of the speculation deserves, on account of its great importance, a fuller development of the facts connected with it. The Cavazos grant was one of immense value, and constituted a tempting prize to the grasping and rapacious spirit of these land speculators with whom Judge Watrous was actively con- nected. It lies about sixty miles on the Rio Grande; about forty miles on the Gulf of Mexico, and the Laguna Madre; and almost sixty miles on the Sal Colorado. It contains about two hundred and fifty thousand acres of land. It embraces within its limits, as claimed by Cavazos, the town or city of Brownsville; also Point Isabel, which is the site of the .custom-house, and the port of entry, for the Rio Grande country; besides numerous villages or ranches, and also valuable Government sites and improve- ments. With the expectation of occupying the upper portion of the Rio Grande country, "an empire worth fighting for," it was
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