Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/266

 . He made me accompany him to every hat store in Washington in search of a hat with 'a very narrow rim '; and, finally, to the Capitol, to select his seat in the House of Representatives.

"After having selected his seat, as he imagined, he turned to me, and remarked: 'Now, Butler, I am a Member of Congress, and I will show Mr. Calhoun that I have not forgotten his insult to me when a poor lieutenant.'

"When a lieutenant, he once went to Washington in charge of an Indian delegation, dressed, as was his wont, in Indian costume. For this Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, reproved him, and he never forgot nor forgave him.

"You, sir, and your good friend Dr. Samson, know more than I do of his after and remarkable career—his election as Governor of Tennessee; his first and unfortunate marriage; his resignation and sojourn among the Cherokee Indians; and his advent to Texas. I will therefore conclude with a few remarks upon the 're-annexation of Texas,' as Robert J. Walker termed it, and Houston's connection therewith; and with reference to the advance of Gen. Taylor's army into Mexico, concerning which I, then a private citizen of Louisiana, exercised no little influence.

"You recollect President Van Buren's rejection of President Houston's proffer of the annexation of Texas to the United States for the alleged reason, 'We already have elements of strife enough, and when the fruit is ripe, it will fall into our lap'; but really from sectional motives, for which Robert J. Walker, the able champion of annexation, defeated his renomination to the Presidency by springing the 'two-thirds rule' upon him.

"Years passed away; Houstonr had been succeeded as President of Texas by Jones, and Van Buren as President of the United States by Harrison, and, at his death, by Tyler, when, in 1844, my old friend and West Point classmate, Andrew Jackson Donelson, was sent as chargé d'affaires to Texas, to negotiate a 'Treaty of Annexation.' Finding Houston violently opposed to it, and Jones consequently indisposed or indifferent, Donelson induced him to convene the Texan Congress, believing it and the people to be in favor of it.

"During the interval, Donelson came to me at my plantation in the parish of Iberville, Louisiana. He read to me his correspondence with the Texan Government, and its apparent indifference; of his visit to Houston, in the interior, and his indignation toward Van Buren, and consequent opposition to the proposed treaty; and, finally, remarked that Houston seemed to be under the influence of Elliott and Saligny, the English and French representatives near the Government of Texas, who were endeavoring to defeat annexation, and to negotiate treaties of commerce or alliance, 'offensive and defensive,' with the Governments of England and France.

"I therefore advised him to return at once to Texas, to appeal to the people, many of whom he knew, and to use every means in his power to counteract the efforts of Elliott and Saligny. He returned immediately to the seat of the Texas Government; and, a few days after his arrival, Capt. Elliott was holding forth at one end of the dinner-table of the hotel against annexation, in a loud voice, when Donelson, who sat at the other end, remarked, in an equally loud voice, 'Captain Elliott, I think you are making a fool of yourself.' That finished the cause of the gallant captain; for any one who knows a Texan can imagine the effect upon those present of Donelson's remark.

"In the meantime I went to the 'Hermitage,' at the request of my venerable