Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/246

 throughout the United States and Europe as the impartial chronicler of passing events—a mention made during the memorable session of the Peace Commissioners, who met in January, 1861 — deserves to be added as the closing record of his Congressional life. The Intelligencer of February 28, 1861, has this statement: "Texas is raising an army. The Legislature has authorized the new Governor to issue State bonds to the amount of $500,000 to repel invasion." In its issue of March 2d, the Intelligencer quotes as follows from the New York Journal of Commerce: "A letter from Cape Verde, Texas, received in this city from Col. Waite, makes no mention of an order to relieve Major-Gen. Twiggs, who delivered up the United States property to Texas. The telegraph does not say to whom, but probably not to Gov. Houston." The Intelligencer explains: " It was to the committee of three on public safety."

The Intelligencer of March 6th contains the following citation:

"The Austin, Texas, Intelligencer has been permitted to publish the following extract from a letter written by Gov. Houston to an old friend, defining his position: 'You say it is reported that I am for secession. Ask those who say this to point to a word of mine authorizing the statement. I have declared myself in favor of peace, of harmony, of compromise, in order to obtain a fair expression of the will of the people. Dangerous as may be the precedent inaugurated by the convention before the majesty of the law which recognizes the power to submit the question of disunion to the people, I yield, in the same spirit that actuated Andrew Jackson in paying the fine arbitrarily imposed on him at New Orleans. I am determined that those who would overthrow shall learn no lesson from me. I still believe that secession will bring ruin and civil war; yet, if the people will, I can bear it with them. Sixty-seven years of freedom, the recollection of past triumphs and sufferings, the memories of heroes, whom I have seen and known, and whose venerated shades would haunt my footsteps were I to falter now, may perhaps have made me too devoted to the Constitution and the Union. But, be it so. Did I believe that liberty and the rights of the South demanded the sacrifice I would not hesitate. I believe that less concession than was necessary to frame the Constitution will now preserve it. Thus believing, I can not vote for secession. I have hesitated to say anything on this topic, because I desire the people to act for themselves. My views are on record. Yet it is perhaps but right that my old friends should know that the charge that I am for secession is false."

In his memoir of Houston in "Johnson's Cyclopedia," Hon. A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, says: "His decided opposition to the policy of secession lost him the confidence of those for whom he had done so much."