Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/414

 annexation in 1845, there was not one dollar of debt incurred, nor one liability created. From December, 1841, when the exchequer system was established, and the immense issues of $12,000,000 were suspended, $200,000 was the amount of the currency established by law, and that commenced to issue at the rate of a hundred cents on the dollar. A combination was directly formed of brokers and speculators, gentlemen alien to Texas, who wanted to filibuster, and subvert the Government, right or wrong, who said that if they were not admitted into its control or made participants of it, they would subvert it, if by no other way, by revolution. They combined, and by their combination immediately reduced the value of that currency from a hundred cents to seventy-five, and at one time it went down as low as twenty-five cents on the dollar. By economical issues, by extreme economy in the Government, the value rose again. But the Legislature, which met annually, consumed a large amount, and being opposed to the Executive, sought every possible means to embarrass him; and instead of requiring the taxes to be paid as under the previous existing laws, they repealed those laws for the collection of taxes, or postponed their operation for six months, so as to depreciate the value of, by lessening the demand for, this currency, and thereby to embarrass the Government in such a way that it could no longer exist. However, the good fortune that presided over Texas, and directed her path, did not desert her. The currency came up again, and was at par; but after a long session of the Texas Congress it fell to fifty cents, and even as low as thirty-seven and a half cents; but it rose again, and continued at par, in spite of all the combinations and machinations of faction, corruption, and treason. When that administration ended, in 1844, the Government of Texas had not only accumulated in the treasury $25,000 of par funds in gold and silver, but it had paid all just and unavoidable demands to foreign nations, and to support the Santa Fe and Mier prisoners in Mexico, and to procure their release, not less than $70,000. So that the Texas debt, with the exception of $2,500,000 accrued between the years 1838 and 1841, not a solitary cent accrued in the administration which lasted from the end of 1841 to 1844. It will thus be seen the debt of Texas did not grow out of her necessities, and that the present creditors who come forward here with their demands, and who, according to their saying, helped Texas in her hours of trial and threw their money into her lap, instead of doing that, threw it into the lap of speculators. Not a dollar of it went to Texas which will not only be paid in par funds, but which will also, I trust, be paid with interest, and at a premium. There were bonds issued,—let them be paid to the letter and to the last farthing; but let those who have accumulated these obligations by speculation, and that, too, of a most enormous character, receive, like Shylock, their "pound of flesh," or two pounds if you please, but " not one drop of Christian blood." Sir, if these men were the assignees, or the descendants of Shylock, they would reflect just credit upon his reputation. [Laughter.]

But, Mr. President, it is thought that it is immoral in Texas—that it is not a clever thing in her not to pay her debts. Now, I should like to ascertain by what standard of morality we are to arrive at the adjustment of her debts? Is it that standard of morality that pays a man not only what he has given, but a hundred per cent, in addition to that? Or is it the standard it is proposed to establish here, that when a man has given three cents for a dollar, he is to get a hundred cents? Is it that rule by which we are to judge of the morality of