The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-04-26
AUSTIN, April 81, 1888.

Hon. John Ireland. Governor:
Sir-Your letter of the goth was
handed me last night at late hour,
on my return to my lodgings.
1t is a subject OF regret to me that
my fixed habit of aiming to be "pre-
cisely correct in the use of words"
should have caused your excellency
any annoyance or inconvenience.
l may now presume, however, as you
recognize my disposition IN this re-
spect, that in this last letter OF yours to
save all necessity for possible further
explanations, you have chosen words
with careful reference to their ordi
nary, apparent, and proper meaning.
Assuming, then, that you have advis
edly employed the word comforting"
to characterize our interview on the
18th, implying confidential inter
change of ideas about the financial
management of penitentiarieS with me
as friend sought out by you for that
purpose, must remind you that the
interview was casual one, on the
street; of not more than two minutes,
relative to my application, in which
interview, after inquiring whether l
had received your note, you informed
me of the want of success of my said
application. Equally with the note,
it was an official communication,
and 1 was entitled to regard your
language as dictated by your own
mind with official propriety and pre-
cision. Could it be supposed
that an official would unbosom
himself in friendly conference
on penitentiary management
with man whom at the moment he
was notifying that his application to
be entrusted with the management in
part of those very affairs, had been,
for good reasons, determined upon
adversely We did not confer.
In your note of the 10Th you stated
unqualifiedly: This appointment has
been rendered to Mr.. Haywood Bra
ham," and in the interview you said
positively: "The board several days
ago appointed Mr.. Haywood Brahan."
The words are indelibly imprinted
on my memory, and are in harmony
with and corroborated by what you
said in your official note. You are
now disposed to think" you said, or
meant, that Brahan had been agreed
upon, or selected"
L follow you. then, to this new line
to which you fall back, and find
you fortifying behind the ''old board"
It was the old board, it seems,
that agreed upon" Mr.. Brahan.
Now, either you meant to impress me
that he had been agreed upon in the
sense of comforting or rendering an
or you meant that the
old board had merely agreed within
itself to recommend him to the new
board. The former, by your ac-
was beyond its le-
gal authority; the latter construction
is contradicted by your statement that
the old board, in tender regard Tor
Col. De Morse, Mr.. Breeding and my
self, withheld from the new board all
Of what had been "agreed
upon"
If this action" though not bind
ing on the new board, was intended
to be persuasive" how could it be
persuasive when kept in the dark
We outsiders, in our ignorance, ap-
piled, it seems, to the wrong board.
| have information that Hon. F. r.
Lubbock recommended Col. S. III.
Darden, though Col. Darden's name
was not presented as an applicant.
If Treasurer Lubbock did not join
in the preference for Brahan, the
old board in its action in his behalf,
is narrowed down to yourself and
Supt. Goree; and it would therefore
appear that by occult influences not
easily defnable. as you would not give
the commissioners the slightest
of the selection" the
BUSINESS was satisfactorily adjusted
by yourself and Major Goree, and
the commissioners, who are highly
as worthy gentlemen, just
appointed, and without experience in
the new field, were played upon as
and gently pushed along
predetermined line, without con-
seriousness of the disparagement prac-
ticed upon them.
You intimate a violation of pro-
priety on my part in sending to
Messrs, Tips and Searcy, each, a note
of application at the same time l
sent you my letter of the nineteenth.
AS justification, will state that al
though you presented my name to
the commissioners, you never did
submit to them my letter of applica-
ton, addressed through you to the
board, choosing to present my case in
your own language, though your fixed
preference was for another.
Major Searcy stated to me after the
that he was governed in
his acquiescence in the appointment
of Brahan largely by the recommen-
dation of the superintendent and the
old board. Comment is unnecessary.
Respectfully,
w M BROWN