Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/410

 million. It was from 1838 up to the end of 1841, that the debt accumulated from two and a half millions to the enormous sum of twelve millions of dollars. This was not, as gentlemen seem to understand it in most instances, a debt created by the sale of bonds, pledging the faith of Texas for their redemption; for a little more than one million of bonds are all that are outstanding against Texas. The other debts have resulted from her currency. The impression has gone abroad that Texas was placed on a footing with other States, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and others, who sold their bonds at a depreciation, and that, therefore, the question would not arise whether she received the full value of those bonds or not; but that she was bound to pay them at their face; that she had received the most that could be obtained for them, and that the risk justified the depreciation of price at which they were purchased.

I know that these are the impressions which have gone abroad throughout the community; and if Texas, when her credit was low and depressed, had been compelled to raise means for the support of her armies and for the expenses of her civil list, and had for that purpose sold bonds calling on their face for a hundred cents to the dollar, and had only received fifty cents, she would yet have been bound in good faith to redeem them according to the letter of the liability, and would have had no excuse for shrinking from punctually meeting her obligations but inability to pay her debts. But when we look into the nature of the liabilities of Texas, we find that, with the exception of about one million of dollars, they are of a very different character from what has been generally supposed. Texas issued promissory notes. Up to 1838, these passed currently at par. A change in the administration of the Government then took place, and the first act of the new Administration was to raise new regiments for the purpose of defending the frontiers, as it was said, and then, although the previous amount allowed to the Executive for frontier defense had been inconsiderable, it was swelled up by appropriations to the amount of a million and a half of dollars, and the civil list had no less than half a million appropriated to support it.

The throwing of these two millions of dollars of promissory notes into circulation, had the effect of lowering the value of the former currency, and the whole depreciated at least fifty per cent., and gradually declined from that to the lowest point of depression. Successive issues were made, and the depreciation continued during the years 1839, 1840, and 1841; and in proportion as the issues were increased the depreciation went on. During that period immense expenditures were incurred and liabilities issued, for which there was not the semblance of authority. The Santa Fé expedition was fitted out, and must have cost more than one million of dollars; and that expenditure was incurred, not only without authority, but in positive violation of the expressed will of the two Houses of the Texan Congress, by a mere dictum of the Executive. The arms and munitions of war of the country were entirely expended in that expedition; and accumulated expenditures were bequeathed to the succeeding Administration. Thus issues to the amount of millions were made without authority, and they became valueless. In December, 1841, Texas suspended payment because she was then unable to pay her debts.

But here let me ask. Who are these creditors who now come forward with such plaintive appeals to this body? Who are they who are imploring the commiseration of Senators: "Help us or we sink "? Are they men who were sufferers by the Texan revolutionary struggle? or are they men who speculated