Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/55

Rh your views, if you should entertain any, touching the acquisition of Texas by the Government of the United States. That such a measure is desired by nineteen-twentieths of the population of the province, I can not doubt. They are now without laws to govern or protect them. Mexico is involved in civil war. The Federal Constitution has never been in operation. The Government is essentially despotic, and must be so for years to come. The rulers have not honesty, and the people have not intelligence. The people of Texas are determined to form a State Government, and separate from Cohahuila, and unless Mexico is soon restored to order, and the Constitution revived and re-enacted, the Province of Texas will remain separate from the Confederacy of Mexico. She has already beaten and repelled all the troops of Mexico from her soil, nor will she permit them to return; she can defend herself against the whole power of Mexico, for really Mexico is powerless and penniless to all intents and purposes. Her want of money taken in connection with the course which Texas must and will adopt, will render a transfer of Texas to some power inevitable, and if the United States does not press for it, England will, most assuredly, obtain it by some means. Now is a very important crisis for Texas. As relates to her future prosperity and safety, as well as the relations which it is to bear to the United States, it is now in the most favorable attitude, perhaps, that it can be, to obtain it on fair terms. England is pressing her suit for it, but its citizens will resist, if any transfer should be made of them to any power but the United States. I have travelled nearly five hundred miles across Texas, and am now enabled to judge pretty correctly of the soil and resources of the country, and I have no hesitancy in pronouncing it the finest country, for its extent, upon the globe; for the greater portion of it is richer and more healthy than West Tennessee. There can be no doubt that the country east of the river Grand, of the North, would sustain a population of ten millions of souls. My opinion is that Texas, by her members in Convention, will, by 1st of April, declare all that country as Texas proper, and form a State Constitution. I expect to be present at the Convention, and will apprise you of the course adopted, as soon as its members have taken a final action. It is probable that I may make Texas my abiding-place. In adopting this course I will never forget the country of my birth. I will notify from this point the Commissioners of the Indians at Fort Gibson of my success, which will reach you through the War Department. I have, with much pride and inexpressible satisfaction, seen your message and proclamation,—touching the nullifiers of the South, and their 'peaceable remedies.' God grant that you may save the Union! It does seem to me that it is reserved for you, and you alone, to render to millions so great a blessing. I hear all voices commend your course, even in Texas; where is felt the liveliest interest for the preservation of the Republic. Permit me to tender you my sincere thanks, felicitations, and most earnest solicitude for your health and happiness, and your future glory, connected with the prosperity of the Union.

"Your friend and obedient servant, "." This letter is invaluable as connected with the history of annexation, and the estimate and important part which Gen. Houston bore in its development and accomplishment. Standing upon the banks of the Red River in 1833, in imagination he saw a line drawn from