Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/157

Rh March, while at Galveston, he heard of the invasion of Texas by the Mexican commander Vasquez. The deepest alarm spread throughout the country on receipt of this intelligence. Families, all along the western border, were seen flying from their habitations toward the interior. The wildest apprehensions stirred the public mind. The enemy had provocation in the follies and disasters of Santa Fé and Yucatan. Another Alamo or Goliad slaughter might terrify the whole people, with a coast without protection and no army prepared to oppose an invader. In this state of panic, all the intrigues and conspiracies against Houston suddenly ceased. Everywhere, committees of vigilance and safety were organized; the various means resorted to in revolutionary times were called into requisition. They were now most active in stimulating their neighbors to prepare for approaching disasters, who recently had been foremost in threatening to overthrow Houston's administration in the storm of a revolution. The orders of the President at this time showed that he did not believe that the enemy would long remain in the country. In fact, the Mexicans, after committing outrages upon the citizens of San Antonio, had already made a precipitate retreat across the Rio Grande.

Great sympathy was displayed at this time by the newspapers of the Western and Southern States of the Union, for the cause of Texas. The reported invasion by Vasquez and the miscarriage of the Sante Fé expedition, had produced a sensation. Relying on this, Houston made an appeal to the American people. Agents were sent to the United States to receive contributions and procure volunteers. A proclamation was issued, in which it was distinctly required that all troops which came should be perfectly armed and provisioned for a campaign of six months. Texas had no means of arming troops; notwithstanding, several hundred volunteers came to Texas without arms and without provisions, in direct violation of the proclamation. At a public meeting in Georgia, some generous individuals raised something over $500. Besides this sum, all the arms, ammunition, provisions, equipments, and money raised throughout the United States and reported to the Government of Texas, did not amount to $500. Contributions were merely nominal. An extra session of Congress was called to meet in June, to consider the state of the country, and devise means for national defence. So general prevailed the impression that, if anything should be done, it should be done quickly, that Congress debated and legislated without much formality or delay. Congress passed a bill investing Houston with dictatorial powers, and appropriating ten millions of acres of the public domain to carry on a campaign. Without a dollar in the treasury to compensate agents for