Editorial Miscellany [pp. 606-612]

EDITORIAL MISCELLANY.
tion is but too true. It seems almost imma terial what the character of the offence may
be, nothing less than the expenditure of the
fortune and years of time of the injured party
will suffice to attract even the attention of Con gress."
We conclude our rather extended,
but not unduly so, notice of this case,
with a summary of the positions as sumned, and the proposed grounds of
indictment of the Judge as disclosed in
the volume before us, and in the various
memorials which have been presented,
from time to time, for the consideration
of Congress:
Ist. That under the Republic he became
concerned in an attempt to acquire title to a Salt
Lake, (the Sal del Key,) which was reserved
to the Government by the law which he has
persisted ill since his coming upon the bench,
and for which he permitted suit to be brought
in his own court.
2d. That he gave written opinions, both
before and since his judicial career begun, to
the effect, that titles begun and completed after
the closing of the land office in Texas, and
which are notoriously void are valid, and
thereby enabled extensive and profitable frauds
to be perpetrated.
3d. That in violation of a law, imposing a
fine and other punishment for such conduct, he
has been both directly and indirectly concern ed in the purchase of several hundred thousand
acres of forged and fraudulent land certificates,
knowing them to be such, and has attempted
to have them validated by made up suits
brought in his own court, in which, had he
succeeded, a cost would have enured to Texas
of more than twenty-five millions of acres of
the public domain!
4th. That he has combined with other per sons, residing both in and out of Texas, and
has acquired secretly an interest in an eleven
league tract of land, upon which suit was sub sequently brought in his own court, and that
upon the disco very of his interest several years
afterwards, he changed the venue of that suit
to New Orleans, and then, before it was tried,
decided in faxvor of another eleven league grant
which was embraced in the same concession,
and claimed under the same forged power of
attorney by which the grant he and those engaged in the combination with him, asserted
title.
5th. That he has usurped jurisdiction in the
Cavazas case, and has combined with certain
parties, who conspired to defraud a party out
of his interests in the town of Brownsville, and
not only oppressed him as far as possible while
the case was in his court, but successfully defeated his subsequent and proper attempts to
obtain redress by appeal.
6th. That in a certain case, he ordered the arrest of the person and sequestration of the defendant's property upon an alleged contempt,
from which there could be no appeal except to
Congress, a course which the Judiciary Committee, of the 84th Congress, denounced as "irregular, unjust, and illegal, oppressive, and tyrannical;" and a moiety of the same Committee
in the 35th Congress, after a new and most
thorough re-examination, considered to be
"unauthorized by law aInd intended to be
vexatious and oppressive," the other moiety
admitting that for certain reasons they had
not been "disposed to inquire into its merits
with care."
FROM Florida, Prof. Steuckrath writes
again:
"The town of Quincy was laid out in
1825 by Dr. D. L. White, now a resi dent, about four miles from the court house. It has been celebrated for its
schools, and also for the enjoyment of
health. Northern invalids have chosen
it in preference to a more exposed situ ation on the coast. Its distance from
the capital is about twenty-two miles,
and about forty miles from the Gulf of
Mexico. St. Marks is its shipping point,
although it has access to Apalachicola
by the Apalachicola river, which is dis,
tant only twenty miles. The streets
are laid out at right-angles, and the
main streets are all eighty feet wide.
The population is from one thousand to
twelve hundred. The public buildings
consist of a Court-house, Market-house,
Methodist, Episcopal, and Presbyterian
churches, the Academy premises, and
Masonic Hall. The Court-house is a
commodious and neat edifice with wings
which contain fire-proof walls for the
preservation of the records of the court.
The business here is now limited,
though formerly it was very large;
upon which there are nine resident
lawyers of fair reputation dependent.
There are also six reputable physicians,
whose practice extends throughout the
county and adjacent country. Gadsden
county is the principal tobacco region
of the State. Large quantities of the
leaf-tobacco, for wrapping cigars, are
made in this county to the amount of
from $200,000 to $300,000 per year.
Most of this tobacco is principally
sold in the town of Quincy to the agents
of the German houses who congregate
here for the purchase directly from the
planters. This staple being sold for
'cash,' brings in a large amount of ready
money before the cotton crops can be
made available. The cultivation of this
article has exerted a fine moral influence upon the lower classes of society
from the fact, that needing but little
capital, it has stimulated their ambition
to accumulate and render themselves
respectable. In other countries children
are considered an incumbrance to the
poor man, but here they constitute the
basis of his fortune, which is abundantly
illustrated by many living examples
throughout the country. Many men,
who could scarcely make a living for
their families in 1830, when the culture
of the Florida leaf-tobacco was ijtro
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