Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/368

 and to charge it with bad faith; and though you are pleased to commend the conduct of the illustrious Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas, and myself, for acts of generosity exercised toward you, you take much care to insinuate that we only were capable of appreciating your proper merits. That you may no longer be induced to misconstrue acts of generosity and appropriate them to the gratification of your self-complacent disposition, I will inform you that they were acts of magnanimity characteristic of the nation to which we belong. They had nothing to do with your merits or demerits. The perfidy and cruelty which had been exercised toward our companions in arms did not enter into our calculation. Your sacrifice would not restore to our gallant companions their lives, nor to our country their services. Although the laws of war would have justified the retaliation of your execution, yet it would have characterized the acts of a nation by passion and revenge; and would have evinced to the world that individuals who had an influence on the destinies of a people were subject to the capricious impulses of vengeance, of which you had so recently set an example.

So far as I was concerned in preserving your life and subsequent liberation, I was only influenced by considerations of mercy, humanity, and the establishment of a national character.

Humanity was gratified by your preservation. The magnanimous of all nations would have justified your release, had they known how little its influence was dreaded by the Texans. If, upon your return to Mexico, you should have power, and a disposition to redeem the pledges you had voluntarily made to myself, as well as this Government, of an earnest disposition to see the independence of Texas recognized by Mexico, I believed it would have a tendency to restore peace to the two nations, diminish the aggregate sufferings of their citizens, and promote the prosperity of both countries. In the event that you were not disposed to redeem the pledges thus given, but urge a prosecution of the war by Mexico against us, I wished to evince to mankind that Texans had magnanimity, resources, and confidence sufficient to sustain them against all your influence in favor of their subjugation.

Your liberation was induced by such principles as these; and though you tendered pledges, doubtless to facilitate and insure your release, they were received, but not accepted, as a condition. I believe that pledges made in duress are not obligatory upon the individual making them; and, if you intended to exercise the influence which you declared you would, the unconditional liberty extended to you would interpose no obstacle to their fulfillment.

Without adverting to any treaty stipulations which you had made with the Cabinet of Texas, I gave you your entire liberty and safe conduct to the city of Washington.

You have asserted to the world that you have given no pledge to the Texan Government whatever of your disposition in favor of its separation from Mexico. That the tribunal to which you have appealed, may judge of the validity of your assertion, I shall submit with this communication a letter of yours addressed to me at Columbia, dated the 5th November, 1836, after my determination to give you your liberty had been communicated. I shall present it in the original, accompanied with its translation into