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Capture and Death of Dimitt

It was revealed at the trial of Kinney and Aubrey, declared the Telegraph of August 11, 1841, that the arrest of Dimitt and his associates was not authorized by the Mexican government and was unknown to Arista. In consequence of this evidence, Lamar ordered the recently captured Mexican traders to be released and their property restored to them, and it was hoped that the Texan commissioners, Morris and Van Ness, already on their way to Mexico would upon arrival at Arista's headquarters be able to effect the release of the Texan prisoners.

It was Kinney's belief that he had become "obnoxious to some . . . Americans who disliked the successful trade" which he carried on with the Mexicans. Although he admitted having visited Mexico with the purpose of furthering his business as a trader, he declared that he was not a traitor. He had gone there, he said, to secure

. . . the title to the land we live on, having been advised that it would be absolutely necessary to make our title beyond a doubt. . . . No pains were


Ranch broken up. As for the failure to hold an election at Corpus Christi, Ferguson defended himself, saying, that as chief justice he had issued a writ of election for that precinct and had appointed a presiding officer for the election. He felt that his responsibility ended here, but "the true cause of the omission," he believed, "was due to the high excitement caused by the capture of Dimitt, which for the moment absorbed every other consideration."

The House Committee, however, seems to have been primarily concerned with the election issue. The Committee found that Ferguson had received thirty-nine votes to seventeen for Hagler, that there was no evidence submitted to expunge the legality of any of the votes cast, that Ferguson was "duly elected by the voters of San Patricio County, to represent them in the 6th Congress"; but that since "the member elect had not resided in the county of San Patricio six months, previous to the day of election, and was therefore Constitutionally ineligible to a seat in the House of Representatives," it was recommended that the seat then occupied by Ferguson be declared vacant and a new election for San Patricio be ordered by the President. The Committee's recommendations were adopted by the House on November 6.

Affidavit of John D. James, Republic of Texas, County of Victoria, Sept. 22, 1841, in Domestic Correspondence (Texas), 1836-1846, ms.; Deposition of William Van Horne, Sept. 22, 1841, ibid.; L. S. Hagler to Saml. A. Roberts, City of Houston, Oct. 5, 1841, ibid.; Alanson Ferguson to S. A. Roberts, Secretary of State, Victoria, Aug. 5, 1841, ibid.; Smither (ed.), Journals of the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas, II, 6, 6 n. "House Committee Report on the Contested Election of San Patricio County," Friday, Nov. 5, 1841, ibid., 6th Cong., 1 sess., II, 12-14; Texas Sentinel (Austin), Nov. 11, 1841.

No answer has been found to the charge concerning the drawing of pay for members of the San Patricio Company of Minute Men.

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