445
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1845
of "Tom Callender" and a host of others! You may with propriety have recourse to your quill, as your fangs have been worn to the gums by gnawing the file for the last five years. Your memory of facts does not keep apace with your love of fame, and as no other opportunity may occur, I will so far as my official acts may be concerned, correct you. You say that friends of yours applied to me for the office of Attorney General, in your behalf. You, Sir, applied in p1·opria persona, and about the same time an application was made by proxy. I did not appoint you and I will now give you my reasons. The Government had large interests involved in suits by Em- provisions, and I could not trust you with their management, as I believed from what I had heard and knew of your character that you would receive any bribe which might be offered to you and thereby the interests of the Republic suffer a most foul betrayal. I was aware of the fact that you had married a fine lady of wealth and respectable connexions,-after squandering her property that you abandoned her, and left her in total desti- tution,- that you had swindled many persons in the ·united States, who had confided in you, that you had been a chucky luck dealer and sharper in San Felipe de Austin,-that you had by base artifice imposed upon Gen. Jackson by claiming citizenship in Mississippi and obtaining the appointment to Mexico as Charge d'Affaires. Believing you to be no better than you should be, and much worse than anyone else that I do know, if I were certain that [I] could destroy you in a duel, I would not wish to do it, but if I were your enemy (which I am not) I would desire that you should remain the living monument of your iniquities, unshamed and unscourged, as you have always done! I was apprised of your swindling Gen. Anderson in London out of $1000. I was also apprised of your mission to Mexico, as it was attended with every phase of averice, shameless prevarication and unmitigated falsehood. I knew of the imposition practised by you upon the Revenue of Mexico by means of your diplomatic privileges. I was apprised also of your pretended negociations with Mexico for the Province of Texas, and your exposure and recall, again of your misrepresentations to Gen Jackson and that by them you obtain leave again to return to the City of Mexico, and that on your return you were taken to La Bahia, and wellnigh suffered as a traitor to Texas by those who had known you at San Felipe de Austin. I was aware that instead of attending to the interests of the United States, you availed yourself of your
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