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& regarded your conversation with him absurd in the light of one. Failing to get it, the Board deemed themselves controlling of the lot, & denied the fact of building being about to commence, the first notification they had of a Contract, being given, an insult to their honorable body. They expected you to meet with them, & ask for permission to build. It was not all I had asserted in pretty strong terms that the Government excused supreme control over their lot & only used their name as means to secure the title for their benefit - also that Trustees when refractory, were no more above the reach of the Military, than were Governors, Judges, & Mayor's, that they came to their senses. They then told me, you were not the one at whom the point of the letter was directed - but led me to infer that it was Gayle, whom they blamed.
I took particular pains to inform the Board that my language to them, was not part of my instructions, but the spontaneous result of reading their letter, for which I alone was responsible.
Once convinced that the matter was beyond Mr Allen's control we came to an understanding & parted the best pleased set of men I have seen for a