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Capture and Death of Dimitt

Henry Redmond, who had been there many times, both declared that they saw no evidence of treasonable conduct on the part of the accused, or any of their alleged correspondence with Mexican officials. James Wright declared that he would not believe Thompson, even under oath;[54]  and Albert C. Horton, a man of considerable wealth, stature, and influence in the Matagorda area (he had served in the First and Second Congresses, been a vice-presidential candidate in 1838, and served on the commission to locate the capital), wrote Lamar: I believe the charges . . . [against Kinney] to be groundless -- and the result of a system of persecution against him. I therefore take pleasure in recommending him to your favourable consideration -- with confidence that you will do him that justice, which I believe he merits, by exculpating him from false charges."[55]

When no one appeared to give testimony against them, Aubrey and Kinney were adjudged not guilty by Judge Hutchinson, who ruled,

There being no evidence whatever to criminate the accused, and on the contrary satisfactory proof to place them on very high and unimpeachable ground as gentlemen of probity, and citizens not only of fidelity to the Republic but as having made great personal and pecuniary sacrifices in favor of the country, in the establishment and sustension of their fortress beyond the Nueces -- Wherefore, they, and each of them, are fully, freely, and entirely discharged.

The undersigned take pleasure in stating, that the evidence given has been strongly corroborated by sundry communications recently addressed to the Hon. the Secretary of War, and which he has submitted for inspection of the undersigned. A Hutchinson, Judge 4th Jud. Dist.[56]

Just what the "sundry communications recently addressed to the Hon. the Secretary of War" may have been or from whom they may have come is difficult to say. One piece of evidence centers around Judge Alanson Ferguson, who was accused of receiving money from H. L. Kinney to pay his expenses to the seat of government at Austin to lay before the authorities the circumstances surrounding the abduction of Dimitt and other citizens by the Mexicans.[57]  Thinking that



54. Telegraph and Texas Register, Aug. 25, 1841.

55. A. C. Horton to Gen. M. B. Lamar, Matagorda, July 25, 1841, in Lamar Papers, V, 483.

56. Telegraph and Texas Register, Aug. 25, 1841.

57. Simeon Newcomb to Judge [Alanson] Ferguson, San Patricio, [dated:] Victoria, Aug. 5, 1841, in Domestic Correspondence (Texas), 1836-1846, ms.

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AFTER SAN JACINTO: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1836-1841
Joseph Milton Nance, 1963