Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/323

 interest to the Republic, and in the prosecution of your labors you have my earnest desires that they will be conducted by intelligence and influenced by wisdom, to the attainment of such objects as will afford encouragement to every patriot, and redound with eminent advantages to our country.

Circumstances, involving the general interests and condition of the country, have induced an earlier call of the honorable Congress than was anticipated. During our existence as a people, no deliberative body has ever been convened under more interesting and important circumstances; nor do I believe it will ever devolve on any assembly of men to act upon subjects of more vital importance to their country and mankind.

Since the commencement of legislation in Texas, as a separate and independent power, we find the proceedings of Congress but too frequently characterized by acts of selfishness and partiality. The public good has but too often been disregarded, and the national interests left out of view; and thus, without establishing any general principle or system of legislation, temporary expediency has been substituted for a due consideration of the public good. Under this state of things, it is but true, that the nation has been gradually declining. Instead of deriving advantages and facilities from the lapse of time, its decline, since the year 1838, to its present point of depression, has been regular and more rapid than perhaps that of any other country on the globe possessing the same natural advantages. From possessing a currency nearly at par, with a circulating medium but little more than half a million, and with a credit unparalleled for a country of its age, we find ourselves in a condition utterly destitute of credit, without a currency, without means, and millions in debt. Instead of improving from an increased immigration, the introduction of wealth, and the improvement of our social condition, we discover that a want of confidence at home and distrust abroad are impediments which" have to be countervailed before our prosperity can be advanced.

Very few congressional enactments, it is believed, will be necessary at least to arrest the evils, if not to produce for and to place Texas, once more, in an attitude cheering to the patriot and creating confidence throughout the land. Our external difficulties, if managed with propriety, are of less magnitude than they have been regarded; and no country on the globe can boast natural advantages and facilities comparable to those of Texas. We possess every needful resource of competency, wealth, and national independence. To develop these, and convert them to the benefit of the nation, will require but little legislation; and that course of policy adopted to this end should be pursued by the functionaries of the Government.

The chimera of a splendid government, administered upon a magnificent scale, has passed off, and left us all the realities of depression, national calamity,