Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/56

 the great northern lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, which separated civilized, cultivated, and enlightened man from savages, or from no less unfortunate people, those who were devoted soul and body to civil and religious despotism. He saw the flood of emigration reducing the wilderness, and planting civilization, the arts and letters where desolation had reigned for ages. His imagination caught fire with the prospect of making a double conquest of Texas. "Coming events cast their shadows before them." He then feared, as he all along feared, British influence, and his fears and jealousy of that power were founded upon an enlarged comprehension of British politics. The views and policy which ever governed Gen. Houston in all his relations to the question of annexation are sagaciously unfolded. That Texas would be free, would be peopled by sons and daughters of freedom' and that civilization and intelligence would career westward on this continent, and only stop with the waters of the Pacific were matters encompassed by the vast energies of Gen. Houston's mind, American soldiers coming in collision with Mexicans breathed new life into the dead body of Mexican politics, and departing left behind a spirit of freedom that tore down the altars of anarchy and bigotry.

A letter of an earlier date will show what influences in the United States were stimulating Houston's mind in his plans for Texas The writer of this letter was a U. S. postmaster.

"., Aug. 3, 1832.

":— I reached home on the 30th ult., and found all well; but have been so much engaged since my return that I have not found a moment to devote to your service till to-day. Before this reaches you Major Flowers will have informed you of the fate of my application to Congress on behalf of the witnesses in the Stansberry inquir)'. The committee reported favorably, but it was so late in the session that it was impossible to get the House to consider it. Matters remained at Washington much as when you left, except that it was nearly cleared of its transient as well as resident population. I was informed by Col. Shote, with whom I parted at Baltimore on my way home, that there was reason to fear that your friends in New York would fail of their engagement to furnish the means of prosecuting your Texas enterprise. I hope it will not prove true, for I had indulged the expectation of hearing of, if I could not witness and participate in, the most splendid results from this undertaking. I do not believe that that portion of country will long continue its allegiance to the Mexican Government, and I would much rather see it detached through your agency, as the consequences could not fail to be highly favorable to your interest, than to learn that the object had been effected through any other means, or even to learn that it had become the property of the United States on the most favorable terms of purchase. I shall feel uneasy until I learn from you how the matter has resulted. I have a large and dependent fc^mily to provide for and protect, and a cold and heartless world to grapple with under circumstances that at present are rather unpropitious, and next to my own deliverance from the embarrassments which surround me, it would give me pleasure to know that the clouds which have hung over and dimmed your