San felipe de Austin 6 sepr 1825
Sir
Your letter I have recd and it appears from it that Mr Coles
declines to comply with the requisition to him in my letter of this
morning and as you state considers that my request merits no
attention—that is he absolutely refuses to restore Richmonds Deed
or make any satisfaction for his conduct—As to the surprize you
express at my demand on Coles I can't see why you ought to feel
any from any thing that occurred at our interview and considering
the ungentlemanlike manner in which Coles has used me—His
complying with your order is no excuse for his conduct On the
contrary it is just ground of complaint because that order was
illegal—What right had you sir to order or pretend to any
controul over the property of others—What right had he to obey such
illegal order—How can he attempt to defend his conduct in writing
I may I say advising you to adopt the unfortunate course that has
been taken and then endeavr to impose upon me by a denial of his
underhand practices—If Mr. Coles thinks charges of this kind
and which can be proven too, merit no attention he thinks as a
man devoid of feeling for his own character or the opinion of his
fellow citizens for believe me that opinion shall shortly be elicited—
You state he was in duty bound to send you the paper as you
are pleased to term it—Sir yr idea of duty and mine are very
different—
As to the mistake you speak of in the Deed you have adopted a
singular way of rectifying it, by stifling the Instrument in toto
"—You say independent of this mistake and admitting there was
none that David Richmond was not such a person as the law
recognized as a suitable Character to be received as a settler
that he was a drunken vagabond in the full extent of the
expression and was not such a person as you could feel justified in
returning to the Government as a settler and for that reason and many
others of still greater weight you are entirely justifiable in never
recognizing him as a settler at all " But Sir why did you recognize
him—why did you grant Land to this drunken vagabond—why did
you not discover all this prior to such grant—And you now must
punish the transgressions of the unfortunate mans life by throwing
obliquy on his memory, as it were passing a post humus judgement
on him for his sins by depriving his heir of her just bequest—this
is an erroneous principle to punish a mans errors by a confiscation
(for this process is nothing else) of his property after his death
As to the Comments in yours on my course in this business it merits
not the epithet of violent which you are pleased to bestow upon it—
It has not been violent— I have demanded my right— I have done
it firmly and whether ill calculated or not to obtain the result of my
wishes It is a course I can perfectly reconcile to my conscience and
I fear not the result—but be that result what it may I never shall
suffer my rights or those of others entrusted to my charge to be
trampled on by any man or combinatn of men— It still is my wish
that this affair should be settled as it ought by an imediate
restoration of the deed in question, but I cannot see any benefit to arise from
a personal Communication with you on the subject untill the Deed
is restored—The existence of it is a notorious fact it can be proven by
those who have read and were capable of knowing its contents and
who can testify on oath as to the same—I shall expect a final answer
in the course of tomorrow and unless restitution is made in that time
I shall lay the whole transaction before the public together with my
opinion of the conduct and character of John P Coles
Lauce Richd Kenny
Col Steph. F Austin