PAPERS OF l\frnABEAU BU0NAPARTE LA~IAR 41 the same time that a Court of enquiry may be Called to investigate the matters and Circumstances, Connected with my being in arrest. Agreeable to the ninty second article of War Respectfully Sir your Obdt. Sevt. TH0S. M. LIKENS Capt. M. B. Lamar Capt. Comdg Laredo Guards
No. 2283. LAUAR TO THOMAS l\L LIKENS
Laredo 14 Dec 1816
Leut. THos. 1[ LIKINS Sm
In your note just recd. you request me to forwd "to the proper head Quarters" a letter which you have this day addressed to Capt. George Lincoln, Comargo, inviting his attention to three documents which you send him, and asking him, to grant you a Court of Enquiry agreeable to the Ninety Second article of War"- This leaves it in some doubt as to the destenation you design for your papers. If I should send them to what I estem to be the "propel' head Quarters" I should direct them to General Taylor at l\Iontery, to whom, it ap- pears to me, your application for a Court of enquiry ought to be made; but inasmuch as your letter was written to day and addressed to Capt Lincoln I infer that you desire him to receive and to read it before it shall be laid before any other person, and accordingly I shall forward it to him without delay; together with documents marked 1. 2. & 3 accompanying it. Since I am engaged in writing to you, I will embrace the oppor- tunity of performing a task, which has been postponed for the want of leisure. I mean the giving of a reply to that portion of your let- ter of the 9 inst. which remains unanswered. l ndeed, from the irreva- lent and apparently aimless character of the document, it would seem to demand no further notice than that which it has already recd.; but as it was doubtless penned with a view of producing some effect, either public or private it may not be improper in me to bestow upon it, a few observations. It will prevent any misconception which might arise from my silence. The first thing to be remarked in your letter, is the spirit of complaint which pervades the whole of it. You write as if you had been profoundly wronged, without the prospect of ob- taining justice; but the nature of the wrong and the individual in- flicting it, you do not distinctly mention. Now, Sir if this was in- tended for me, I can assure you that nothing is more unmerited; and I think you ought to know it yourself; for instead of seeking or [be- ing] desirous [of] your "destruction" as you seem to suppose; my whole conduct towards you from your first appointment up to your removal, will go to prove the contrary; for it has been marked by a confidence and forbearance, so long indulged as to subject me to the suspicion of being either willfully blind or culpably indifferent to your conduct. J t may sometimes be painful to look at truth; but we are never at liberty to turn away from it, Very soon after our arrival here, I made known my desire to have an official statement of our expenditures
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