Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/411

 upon the individuals who went through the toils and dangers of that revolution? These promissory notes depreciated in the hands of men who had toiled and fought in the revolution, men who had there given their services and their energies to the cause of independence. In their hands the notes depreciated until they became valueless. They were then thrown upon the market, they were seized upon by speculators. At auctions, in the streets of our cities and villages, they were submitted to public sale and cried off at from three cents to five cents, "Going, going, gone." Then it was that these speculators came in and secured their claims to the generosity and clemency of Texas, and the feeling and commiseration of this body! There were no bonds sold in market for what they would bring; but these were promissory notes sold for a mere song under the auctioneer's hammer, and "in quantities to suit purchasers," for they were piled up as large as cotton bales. When they were cried up till they reached about three cents on the dollar, they would be knocked down to the bidder, and he would be told to go and select from the pile as many as he wanted; he might take a bundle as large as a cotton bale. [Laughter,]

That is the way in which these evidences of debt were obtained. These are the liabilities for which gentlemen claim a hundred cents on the dollar, and which were acquired at the rate of from one to three or five cents on the dollar. No doubt gentlemen in the United States thought the prospect was very fine; they knew that the Texans were descended from the Anglo-Saxon stock, and that they would maintain their liberty in defiance of every difficulty; for the American race never retreated, never took one step backwards; and that from the day they had impressed their footsteps upon a perilous soil, they would go on. Such gentlemen, perhaps, thought that if the Texans were involved in difficulties, they might venture to sell real estate and get money when there was a prospect of investing it in Texas depreciated paper to much advantage. No doubt under these circumstances gentlemen in the United States purchased large amounts of the promissory notes of Texas at ten cents on the dollar, and now come forward and claim one hundred cents on the dollar! To exemplify it more particularly, I will state, that such was the depreciation of Texas currency, that, for instance, if a judge, getting a salary of $3,000, came forward to receive it, and his demand was exhibited, he would receive in Treasury notes $30,000, based upon no issue of bonds, but upon credit. In his hands, the money depreciated, until, perhaps, it became worthless, and then it was thrown into the market in some village, and purchased up by speculators at from one to three or five cents.

This is the character of the Texas liabilities. This is the manner in which they have been bought. What justice, therefore, would there be in giving a hundred cents upon the dollar for their redemption, when they were acquired at rates varying from one cent to five cents? Is Texas bound in good faith to do it.? Was the risk to these gentlemen worth the difference between three cents and a hundred cents on the dollar? I think not. Then, let me ask, has Texas evinced a disposition to pay her debts in good faith, and according to the rules of equity?

Upon these funds thus passed away at the most depreciated rates, and that were purchased up at a mere nominal rate, Texas has determined to pay upon none, no matter for what they were bought, less than twenty cents on the dollar, and from that rate up to twenty-five, fifty, seventy, and seventy-five cents,