1. PILCHER TO AUSTIN
St Louis 13 May 1817
Mr. Stephen F Austin
Sir This evening you called on me and remarked that you thought
you had perceived a coolness in my conduct towards You during
Your present visit to St Louis; at the same time observing that if
your impression was correct, You ware intirely unable to account
for it. I informed you that I was not disposed to enter into verbal
explanations of my conduct; but as you have taken the liberty of
introducing the subject I consider it my right to and perhaps my
duty to renew it, which I will do in a manner not to bee forgotten,
though it should leave you as much in the dark with respect to the
cause as you professed to bee this evening. You sem'd to think it
your duty to make those inqueries in consequence of *******
[sic] a dutiful young man indeed! it is a pity you had not have
reflected on these duties at an earlier period, among other
conjectures too insignificant to mention, you concluded by observing that
you ware bound to infer that my conduct grew out of a suspicious
disposition but could not imagine of what I suspected you— Strange
indeede, that you should suppose I suspected you of something and
you not able to say what.— I immagine I understood you, but you
being either afraid to insinuate the meaning or ashamed to expose
your own vanity could not tell, but be ashur'd Sir you ware
mistaken. I never permit suspicions to govern me in my conduct I
am always governed by existing facts,—so this conclusion is false
but being the production of your own fertile immagination will no
doubt be receiv'd and given as matter of fact as other conjetures
have been with which your brain seems always pregnat—
Had you have possessd comn sagacity you might have made this
wonderful discovery some months ago but finding that you either
would not or could not understand, and finding the necessaty of such
a couse still increasing and that nothing but down right contempt
would make You understand, I was redusd to the necessaty of
adopting a course of conduct even in my own room which I should never
do unless it was under the like imperious circumstances
May 14th
To enter into such an explanation as you would require would
not only bee attended with difficulty but necessarily involve
unpleasant circumstances and the names of individuals for whom I
entertain too high an opinion and for whose feeling I have too much it
respect ever to permit them to escape either my lips or pen on an
occasion like this, by way of explanation however I would
remark that there are two classes of men in the world who in my
opinion are equally contemptable.— The deceitful treacherous
fauning sycophant who by ambiguous insinuations will, under the sacred
name of friendship wound the feelings of others choseing such time
piase and circumstance as to piase it out of the power of the person
injured to treat such conduct as it merits; and the officious news
gatherer who goes about collecting trash and construes the idle and
loose remarks of others into mighty things and gives his own foolish
conjectures as facts those two characters combined become still more
odious and I never can reconcile to my feelings to recognise them
as friends
Joshua Pilcher
I have taken the liberty of delivering this in person
AUSTIN TO PILCHER
St Louis May 14 1817—
Sir
Dureing my present visit to this place I observed a coolness in you
towards me and being fully under the conviction that I had
intentionally done nothing either directly or indirectly to injure you or
wound your feelings, I noticed this singular Change in your
deportment with real astonishment expecting however that you would
persue that course toward me which a Man of honor and of Sperit
never hesitates about adopting when he finds or conceives himself
injured by another, I waited patiently untill last evening, expecting
to be call'd on to answer for those injuries your deportment told me
you conceived I had done you, I waited in vain—you remained
Silent—and intending to leave Town this day I called on you Myself
for an explination of your conduct, not doubting, but that I should
have recd one, and not doubting but that, that full explination would
have enabled me to convince you that I did not merit the treatment I
had received and that the cause of your singular deportment might
be very readily traced to the false representations of some
meddling busybody; or to the misconception of some innocent
and inadvertant act or expression of mine, which was never
intended to wound the feelings or injure the reputation or
views of any person liveing, much less one who I once considered
a man of principle and consistancy and who I once esteemed
as a friend. I consider it one of the first duties of a Gentleman
to render reparation where it is due and there are * certain
other duties [Austin inserts the marginal note "Masonic"]
which sometimes exist between men and which to me I hope will
always be Sacred however lightly and contemptuously they May be
treated by others, and in order to do my utmost in the discharge of
these duties I was induced to call on you to State to me when and
how, I had injured you, that I might make reparation if bound as
a man of honor to do so, or that an explination of your conduct-
might the better enable me to regulate my future deportment
toward you, I applied to you Sir with these motives, with these views,
and in the true Sperit of conciliation, and what was my answer?
that you had no verbal explanation to make which at that time I took
for a total denyal to make any explination at all. The first
impression which this declaration made upon my mind was Surprise
that you Should treat me with coolness bordering on contempt.
And when called on be either afraid or unable to assign the cause,
was certainly a matter of astonishment, this impression of surprise
however was soon displaced by another which must naturally have
arisen in the breast of every Man of Correct principle under similar
circumstances, the impression I allude to is Contempt, the answer
that you had no verbal explination to make at once convinced me
that you either had no just and substantial cause for your conduct,
and was therefore ashamed to assign the rediculous trifles which
your suspicious imagination had Magnified into injuries—or that
your cowardly soul shrunk from taxing a Man to his face with acts
which you knew he never performed, with intentions which you
knew he never possessed—it was with regret I turned with scorn
from a Man who I once esteemed, and who but a few moments before
I conceived to be consistent and honorable, as I left you, you told me
I should hear from you again before I left Town. I received this
intelligence with real pleasure hopeing that in a written
communication, I should receive a full and complete development of the
affair, not doubting as I before observed but that an amicable
understanding must have accrued therefrom—therefore when you handed
me your letter this Morning, viewing it as a harbinger of peace, I
received it with joy, the impression of contempt which your first
answer had forced upon my mind was Momentarily Suspended and
I now hoped to find you that candid man of honor I had
heretofore believed you to be, but however My pleasing anticipations, my
hopes and my wishes disappointed and disapated, and with what
renewed force did the Suspended Impression of contempt fall upon
my Mind, on pexuseing your letter, have you given Me the
explination I asked for ? have you given me the least clue which will lead
to Solution of the Mistery and to a discovery of the injuries I have
done you? No sir, you have said nothing pointed, all is
ambiguous, inconsistent, and unintelligable, and I am now compeled to
remain under the conviction that the injuries I have done you Knew
no other existence than in your own fever'd and distempered brain,
and that either wanting sufficient common sence to discriminate
between a fiction and a reality, or possessing one of those Mean
dispositions which Suspecting every thing that is and thousand of
things that are not gives importance and magnitude to every
frivolous and unmeaning act or expression and converts them into an
injury or an insult. You have fixed your jealous Suspicions on
Some inadvertant Expression Some unmeaning act of Mine which
you have revolved in your disordered brain untill it has swelled to
the immense magnitude of a deadly injury a vital stab in your
reputation, your prospects or whatever rediculous bubble your
imagination may have been blowing up. Your letter is too pitifully
prevaricating to merit an answer in detail, I will however give it one
in part. You say it is a pity I had not reflected on those duties at
an earlier period, this observation merits no answer, and certainly
can have no application to me untill I am Shewn that I have
neglected or violated them and I defy you before the eternal God to
State an instance where I have violated them with you, you say I
was " either afraid to insinuate my meaning, or ashamed to own my
vanity " let me caution you Sir to beware of cherishing the idea that
fear ever has, or ever will deter me from utering my sentiments
freely and openly to you and to the world—and it may be discovered
that I have spirit enough to resent contemptable and unwarranted
insinuations, and to chastise impertinance as it Merits—As to what
you say about vanity I see no application it can have to the subject
at all and Suppose you must have put it in to fill up the sentence
or because your imagination not being as fruitful as usual—could
furnish you with nothing else You say that you are not governed
by Suspicions that you are governed by facts I have demanded of
you Sir what are those facts and received an evaseive, equivocating
answer which a Gentleman would feel himself disgraced in giveing,
but you repeat that you are governed by facts and I again reiterate
the demand What are those facts? You Say that " I might have
discovered your coolness Some Months ago if I had possessd common
understanding ["] I am now Sencible that I did perceive a
coolness in your address to me when I was at Herculanium and felt a
little piqued at it but being equally conscious at that time as I now
am, that I had intentionally done nothing to offend you I took no
further notice of it and soon totally forgot it— Under date of May
14th you Say that "you cannot enter into the explination you
require without mentioning the names of those you respect etc. ["] I
know not who you allude to, but as you have left me entirely to
conjecture I have been induced by a great variety of circumstances to
Suspect who you mean and here I will remark that if I am correct
in my conjecture and if you intend to insinuate that I have ever
directly or indirectly or in any manner whatever intentionally
treated these persons with the least disrespect or impropriety. You
insinuate what is false, you have discribed two characters in the last
clause of your letter which you Say you can not recognise as friends
and which I suppose I am to conclude you apply to me, but which
I think do not at all Suit me I do not merit Such a portrait and
you seem indirectly to insinuate that I " have willfully tried to hurt
your feelings chooseing such time, place, and circumstances as put
it out of your power to treat Such conduct as it merits "—
Sir I can think of no time, no place, no circumstances, when a
person could wantonly and openly wound my feelings without having
it [in] my power either instania or in a very Short time afterwards
to resent Such treatment as it merits, but you poor pitiful good
natured creature, you could have your feelings wounded, and Suffer
the Sacred name of friendship to be basely prostituted as a cover from
behind which you could be assailed in the Most vulnerable part, you
could suffer all this to be done by me as you insinuate and find no time,
no place to punish it no way to resent it but by Sullenness for I know
not what more deserving name to give it. Since when called on to
State what ails you, like a Sullen child you answer not but continue
to pout and doubtless the Same remedy applied to Sullen children
would be of equal service to you, the other character you have drawn
is that of a tattler a talebearer and if you intend to apply this [to] me,
every person who knows me, all who have known me from infancy
will at once give the lie to Such a charge. I will now Sir Most
pointedly, observe, that if you intend to insinuate (for your letter is such
a type of ambiguity and inconsistancy that I [hardly] know what
you intend) if however you intend to insinuate that I have under the
cover of Friendship Secretly or in any other way intentionally
injured you I pronounce Such an insinuation false and the person who
makes it a Liar, and further if you intend to insinuate that I have been
or am a tattler a talebearer Magnifying trifles into Mighty things
with an evil intent, giveing my own foolish conjectures as facts and
attempting to injure others by dark and ambiguous insinuations I also
pronounce Such an insinuation false and the person who makes it a
liar.
I shall now close this communication, probably the last one which
will ever pass between us, by reiterating the assertion which I
repeated to you verbally that I am unconscious of ever haveing at any
time, in any place or under any circumstances injured you or wounded
your feelings or even harboured the Most distant the least Shadow of
an intention to do so in my life, Actuated by a Sence of my duty to-
ward you as a Mason, as one who once esteemed you, as a Man of
honor who was ready to make reparation where it was due I called on
you for an explination of your conduct, your answer has erased every
vestage of the esteem the respect I once felt for you and left me with
no other impression towards you but contemft, a contempt which
can only be removed by an elucidation of the Misteries which now
envelope you and an explination of the absurdities and inconsistencies
of your conduct, at the same time repeating what I have here [to] fore
said that when I am made sencible thai I have injured you, I shall
always be ready to give any explination or satisfaction a Gentleman
ought to give—
I want no more communications from you unless they explain your
conduct
J. Pilcher S. F. Austin
3. MASONIC COMMITTEE TO AUSTIN
Saint Loues May 16th 1817
Having perus'd the communications between Mr Pilcher and
Mr Austin, We must request that those Gentlemen will suspend all
further proceedings for, at least, four or five days—
They will please say whether this request will be complied with—
With esteem
T Douglass
Jerh Connor
Stephen Rector
[Addressed:] Mr Stephen F Austin Present
4. RESOLUTION OF MASONIC LODGE
Resolved, Mem. [sic] Con, That as the efforts of a volunteer
committee of this Lodge, as also of a Committee appointed at a special
meeting called for the express purpose have proved ineffectual towards
settling the unfortunate misunderstanding between Brothers Pilcher
and Austin, that the Worshipfull Master be authorised to appoint a
Committee of three Masters Masons to watch the Hostile movements
of said Brothers against each other. And in case they will not
agree to submit said misunderstanding to this Lodge the Committee
so named be authoris'd and commanded to call the officers of Justice
to their aid to arrest an act which this Lodge fears they
contemplate, equally abhorrent to Religious Masony and Law—Missouri
Lodge St Louis May 31. 1817
by order of the lodge
J. G. Brady W M P. T [Rubric]
5. CHALLENGE TO A DUEL
St. Louis June 1th 1817
Sir,
You have wantonly and without provocation insulted me, and
injured my person, I demand of you that Satisfaction which is due
to the outraged honor of a Gentleman
My friend Doctor Farrar will point out to you the mode and
manner by which you are to make reparation
Yours
S. F. Austin
Mr. Joshua Pilcher
6. Austin's statement of the cause of the dispute
[June 1, 1817?]
for Some time past I observed a coolness in Mr. Pilche[r]s
deportment toward me, which I noticed with the utmost astonishment being
perfectly unconscious of ever having, even in thought, injured him
in my life. I waited untill the 13th May for him to call on me for
a redress of these greivences he thought I had done him, but finding
that he would say nothing but continued his coolness I thought it
my duty to call on him for a candid declaration of the causes of his
conduct. I deemed my duty to do so in consequence of our being
Masons amongst whom the utmost candour and frankness aught
always to exist, another reason which induced me to call on him was
that I feared if an open rupture took place between us, it might be
attributed by the world to a young Lady whose feelings of course
would have been mortified thereby I therefore called on him for an
explination of his conduct his Letter to me and my reply contain
the Substance of what passed verbally between us. He gave me no
Satisfaction as to the cause, either verbally or in his letter he gave
me his Letter on the morning of the 14th May and he recd mine in
evening of the Same day the next morning as I was walking down
Street with Mr. Wash, Pilcher came up behind me and without
giving the least notice or warning of his intention Struck me before I
saw him and injured my eye so that I was deprived of the use of it
for more than ten days—I wished to demand satisfaction of him
immediately, but my Friends would not permit me to do so untill my
eye was recovered, and on the 16th Mr J Connor call'd on me and
requested that I would submit the subject of dispute to T. Douglass,
S Rector and himself—I freely submitted every thing I knew of the
business—and gave them the Letters which had passed on the 17th-
I recd. a note from the above gentlemen requesting me to suspend all
further proceedings for 5 days—I answered that my eye was in such
a state that I should be compelled to suspend proceeding untill my
recovery—from Those Gentlemen I have never heard more on the
subject and know not what they [have] done or attempted to do—
on my arrival in St Louis on the 30th May I was called on by Mr
Kennerly and Hanly a Committee appointed by the Lodge to
investigate the cause of the differance. I gave them at once all the
information on the subject in my power and they professed to be much
gratified at the promptness with which I complied with the request of
the Lodge made through them, they then informed me that they
would call on Pilcher for an explanation of the causes of his conduct-
they did so and he refused to give them, on the 31 May in the
morning I sent Pilcher a note by Doctor farrar, and soon after recd. an
order from the Lodge to attend at the Lodge room at 3 o clk of that
day I accordingly obeyed the order and attended. I was called on
to state what I knew of the cause of—dispute, and answered that I
knew not the cause of Pilcher's conduct and assured the lodge that
I was unconscious of ever haveing done or said anything in my life
to wound feelings of Mr. Pilcher Mr. Douglass then rose as the
representative of his friend Pilcher who refused to attend and stated
that the ground work of his offence was this—that Pilcher had
communicated to me in Masonic confidence the particulars of an affair he
had in Tennessee with a girl, and that one evening in a large
company Pilcher and myself were joking each other and I asked him if
he had lost his heart, he answered no he had it safe and I then
answerd yes I presume it is secure as it has gone through the wars
in Nashville—this he said was the first cause of offence the cause he
said was of a nature which he could not mention without introducing
names which delicacy forbid thereby alluding as I conceive to
females—John W. Honey informed me that the first cause of offence
was this, that Pilcher presented Miss F_________ with a Ticket for the
play and walked with her to the Theatre, when the play broke up
he says, that I took hold of Miss F_____'s arm and walked home with
her and he conceived it to be his right to walk home with [her] since
he had walked there with her. Honey says that he knows this was
the first cause of offence
Pilcher has absolved me from all restrictions as to what he
communicated in confidence I shall therefore state what it was he
informed me that he had been engaged to a Girl in Nashville but did
not return at the time appointed and therefore the match was
broken off—he did not state the name of the Girl or any other
particulars and I had heard the same thing before in substance from
various sources before he told it to me, but after he told me [the]
circumstances I never communicated to any living soul in the
world and I defy him to prove that I ever did—I must infer that
he has recd. his intelligence from FEMALES, the only females with
whom he was known to be in the habits of intimacy have declared
most solemnly that they never heard me say any thing at all relative
to Pilcher and that they never communicated anything to him
the females I allude to are Mrs E____ Mrs C. and Miss F____.
Sometime last winter Pilcher observed that he expected I
intended to court Miss F. I assured him on my honor that I did not
and some time after-wards he repeated the same thing and I again
assured him that I did not and asked him if [he] had any Such
intentions—he [said] no I have not—
My belief as to the cause of Pilcher conduct is this—I think that
he suspected that I was courting Miss F. and therefore had
deceived him in saying that [I] was not—and I think that he then
became jealous and suspected that I had used some unfair means to
supplant him with Miss F—— gealousy I believe is the sole and only
cause, and that the most unfounded for I never in my life had any
designs of courting the Girl he was then addressing, nor did I ever
in my life give her or any of her friends the least reason to suppose
that I intended to address her. And were they the last words I ever
expected to utter in the world I would say that I never did in any
manner, at any time, nor under any circumstances say or do
anything to injure that man or to wound his feelings—
as to what the Lodge have done I consider their conduct to be
every thing but what Masonic duties inculcate, they have accused
me of refusing to submit the cause of dispute to them which is
absolutely false. I did submit to their committee and in open lodge
all and everything I knew on the subject their conduct merits the
severest investigation and I require and injoin it on my friends that
the[y] Make a full statement of this transaction and send it to the
Grand lodge—
7. REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF ARBITRATION
Saint Louis June 7th 1817
The undersigned to whom has been refer'd the matters of difference
between Mr Austin and Mr Pilcher having heard from Mr P the
causes why he had adopted that distant reserve and coolness of
manner towards Mr A. "viz ". An impression that Mr A. had violated
the confidence which he had repos'd in him; And that he was under
the impression that Mr A. was aware of the cause, even at the time
he ask'd for explanations, that with such impressions, he consider'd
Mr A's. demand for an explanation as adding to the injury
particularly as that injury had not been complain'd of. he (Mr P)
refus'd to give any, that during the conversation between Mr Austin
and himself he observed to Mr A. " that he had on a certain occasion
acted officously and treacherously" Towards him and to Mr A's
question of " how when and where " he replied " that he could not
enter into verbal explanations" That his letter of the 13th and 14th
May was elicited by an observation of Mr Austin's made at the
moment of separating in which was infer'd the probable cause of Mr.
P's, coolness and the source from whence it originated but which
inference was incorrect, and being still under the impression that
he (Mr A) was well aware of the true cause, he (Mr P) addressed to
him the letter of the 13th and 14th May to which Mr A replied by
letter of the latter date, repeating his demand for explanations, and
clos'd by declining any further communications, unless his demands
were complied with Mr Pilcher still retaining the same impressions,
that Mr A was perfectly conscious of the circumstances which gave
rise to the coolness on his part, yet would not recognize those
circumstances, but continued to press his demand. As also from the
tone of Mr A's letter conceived that no other course was left him to
persue than that which he adopted.—
On the other part Mr Austin assures us that he never did
intentionally give cause of offence to Mr Pilcher, and that the
circumstance was inadvertant, and without any intention of wounding his
feelings, Consequently Mr P's coolness arose from mistaken
impressions of his intention. Also that at the time he call'd on Mr P for an
explanation, he was intirely unconscious of the cause of such
coolness and that the inference he drew at the time he was leaving Mr P.
grew out of his denial to make any explanation. Consequently
Mr P's. letter of the 13th and 14th was also written under wrong
impressions, which letter has given rise to the subsequent events.—
We therefore the referees chosen by the parties from the
declarations of Mr Austin that he never did either directly or indirectly
intentionally wound or injure the feelings of Mr Pilcher and also his
declaration that at the time he ask'd for explanation he was totally
ignorant of the cause of Mr P's. coolness, (that cause having been
subsequently suggested.) Are unanimously of opinion that Mr
Pilcher should state in writing to Mr Austin, that he regrets having
attack'd him, and is sorry for the personal injury he has sustain'd.
And that he had acted under wrong impressions—Such statement
ought in our opinion to satisfy Mr Austin and all previous
communications which may have pass'd between them relative to this matter
shall be mutually withdrawn and destroyed—
J [or T.] Hanson
J. G Brady
Stephen Rector
T. Douglass
8. PILCHER'S APOLOGY
Mr Stephen F Austin St Louis June 7th 1817
Sir
The award of Messrs Hanson Recter Brady and Douglass
to whom was submitted the determination of the difference between
us has just been communicated to me. I lose no time in complying
with so much of that award as I find to be obligatory upon me by
stating to you in writing, that I regret having attacked you, and am
sorry for the personal injury you have received, and that I have acted
under wrong impressions
I am etc etc
Joshua Piloher [Rubric]