ENPages
1
Sparta Ten. 18th July 1828
His Excellency Saml Houston Esq.
Sir- I trust that you will pardon me for addressing you upon a subject in which I am no further concerned, than, any other member of the community I have referenced to the prosecution brought against George Broyls instituted in the Circuit Court of White County on a charge for stabbing when Matthew G Moore was prosecutor, and upon which Broyls was found guilty, and sentenced amongst other things, to be imprisoned three months
I was not concerned in the defence of this case, but was present and attended to the testimony in a civil action brought against him Broyls by Moore, and have no hesitation, in saying, that from the testimony, it was a case, so nicely ba= lanced that I conceived it extremely doubtful, which was the evidence preponderated, and the jurors passing upon the case were so nearly of the same opinion that they only gave damages to the amount of forty dollars.- Broyls is a young man of industry and integrity, and peceable in his de= portment he has an aged widowed mother, and several sisters dependent upon him for their support, they have resided in this County almost from the earliest settlement of the County, and have universlly sustained a fair character.- Moore the Prosecutor is a man of an overbearing and boisterous charac= ter, dissolute in his habits and mannors, of suspicious charac= ter, and general ill fame, who pursues a dissipated course, generally [engagd?] iin disputes and quarrels, ambitious to sustain
2
generally, the character of a Bully.- Do not conceive my dear sir, that I wish to elevate the character of Mr. Broyls above its true standard or to depress that of Mr. Moore below its true point, for the purpose of mis= leading the mind of your Excellency: or that I wish to dictate to you the course which you should pursue on this occasion, for I have no view or interest in this matter, and am only influenced by those feelings common to this part of the family, that Broyls has al= ready suffered enough, by having in the first place been much injured by the violence offered him by Moore which produced the act committed by Broyls, who was compelled to act in my opinion in self defence, and in the second place he has been compelled to pay con= siderable cost on the civi case to a long train of witnesses summoned by Moore consisting in part of his relations and friends , persons principally moving in his own sphere, and pursuing to some extent his own habits &c.- I assure you that ever since the case has been understood here, the almost universal opinion has prevailed, that if Broyls was not justified by law in committing the act, Moore at least deserved all he received at his hand.- If ever there was a case pre= sented itself in which the clemency of the executive was solicited, when the party had been guilty of an infraction of the rigid rules of law, and when that clemency could be safely exercised in favor of the appli= cant this I believe to be one.
With great respect Jacob A Lane
