446
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 184,5
official situation to try and obtain a monopoly of the Fur trade on the Rio Grande. I saw your letter in Jan. 1833 to Col. James Bowie on this subject, when I was at San Antonio, which fact I communicated to Gen Jackson, and this may have. given rise to his remarks to you (if he made any) about myself. Gen. Jackson may, upon misrepresentations of my actions, or, conduct, have used expressions harsh in their character, and if so, I freely forgive him. His memory is and will ever be held sacred by me, no matter what he may have said under a state of irritation in- duced by falsehood. I knew the man and I knew that he had such men as Anthony Butler about him sometimes who· delighted in monopolizing the sunshine of his favors and \Vere very busy in traducing every man who they feared might expose their characters. I never sought to impress the world with a belief that Gen Jackson was my friend. I only assumed to be an admirer of his for there·was nothing in which I could befriend him. You are welcome to rely upon his evidence against me, as your own will not have much weight in a country where you are known. In 1835 you passed through Texas and from the time that you crossed the Sabine until you crossed the Trinity, and for aught I know until you were nabbed at La Bahia, you were engaged in slandering me! I did not know you by sight, though by character I have :known much of you, when you were distanced in your race for the Governor of Kentucky. You were known there!!! I had once seen you in Nashville when I was a very young man. You were then in the palmy days of your genteel profligacy, wasting the fortune of a Jady whom you sub- sequently abandoned, when her ,vasted means could no longer administer to your profligancy and debauchery. You seem to Jay some stress upon the subject of "Wives." To men of refined feelings it is a matter of delicacy. To you it cannot be so. · You married a woman in Mexico, as she supposed, and lived with her for years. When you left there you brought her with you to Nacogdoches, and after robbing her of all she had, even her jewelry, you abandoned her with your two children in a state of starvation, where they became objects of charity and were sup- ported until the mother could remove to New Orleans. These facts would contrast well with those you have imputed to me. Your general character was so well known that no particular act of yours became a subject of remark. If Anthony Butler was the actor, it was sufficient. Nothing better could be expected of him. His name was synonimous with infamy. If I had evinced that industry which you have done in searching out slanders or in
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