Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/146

 negotiations. Foreign nations were likely to view Texas with ill-favor if attempts at annexation were continued with so little prospect of present consummation. The people generally approved of the withdrawal of the proposition. On the 12th December, 1838, the first Presidential term closed. Gen. Houston surrendered the keys of office with a government perfectly organized. Officers of ability, integrity, and economy were in charge of every department of the State. About $600,000 of promissory notes were in circulation. The debt of the Republic did not reach more than a million and a half. Peace had been established with the Indians, and commerce was profitable with Mexico. Promissory notes were of par value, a grand result of the wise government of an infant State. The feuds between Mexico and Texas were dying away, gradually and surely. At a time when there was little specie in the country, when no one knew how the " promissory notes " were to be redeemed, that the currency of the country should be good and adequate to general wants, was strong proof that Houston had conducted the Government with ability and integrity. The language of the people was, "As long as Old Sam is at the helm, the ship of State is safe."

Extraordinary difficulties embarrassed the beginning of the administration. A reckless people, who had looked to the right arm for protection, accustomed to the unrestrained liberty of frontier life, had to be withdrawn from the sway of anarchy and confusion and placed under the firm and mild sway of constitutional law. Even in the older settlements, during these revolutionary times, the ordinary course of justice had been suspended. It was not strange, therefore, that these men of the period should yield restive obedience to the high supremacy of constitutional law. AngloSaxons have ever been examples of a law-abiding people, but the elements which have made them the supporters of law and order have also made them most lawless frontiersmen. The justice of a jury is slow and not always sure, hence, frontiersmen, whose homes in forest or on prairie, afar from the homes of their nativity, are not often eager to transfer their protection from a rifle which seldom misses fire to the chance of the verdict of a petit jury. The history of Rome and the British Isles is but the history of Texas antecedents. Such was the personal influence of Sam Houston over reckless frontier settlers, that as easily as he ruled by the stern despotism of a camp, he governed them by the mild sceptre of civil law. While such benign changes were in course of successful accomplishment, and the grand structure of civil government was towering before the eyes of nations, petty intrigues harassed, and formidable combinations confronted him. Such has been the fate