Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/612

 spoils are a matter of some import. Is it supposable that Santa Anna, with his Mexican ostentation, would march at the head of the finest army ever marshaled in Mexico and not have with him plate and jewels becoming the condition of a man whose sway was absolute, and whose expectation on his return was to assume the imperial purple and the scepter of the Mexican monarchy? What ever became of these spoils? The Commander-in-chief of the Texas army decreed the spoils to the army. Nor did he ever receive the value of one cent. Colonel Sherman was appointed president of the board to manage and distribute the spoils to the troops. Colonel Bennett has thrown some light upon that subject, and had he been called on by Colonel Sherman, after he charged him with appropriating them, it appears from his letter that he could have given much insight into the affair. Not one dollar's v/orth of the plate was ever produced, but the stragglers who lagged behind had enjoyed the opportunity of concealing them until a better time was afforded to them to carry them away.

They have charged the Commander-in-chief with having more troops than he reported. Seven hundred on the Colorado was the number, according to the statement of Colonel Burleson, as he supposed. The General in-chief never reported more than six hundred and thirty-two; his efficient force never exceeded over seven hundred troops at any one point. At all events, such was the result of the campaign that all the wisdom of man could not have rendered it more successful and beneficial to the country. Had he been drawn into action by indiscretion, and the attempt to force a battle, the bridge at Vince's would not have been cut down, which prevented the escape of the enemy; the enemy would have escaped '. Santa Anna would have reached his reserve force of four thousand men on the Brazos. But by cutting off their retreat, by the Commander-in-chief's own design of destroying the bridge, and leading his troops into action at the proper time, he secured for Texas all that wisdom and valor could have done, whether he exercised them or not.

The Commander-in-chief is charged with receiving orders from the Secretary of War to march upon Harrisburg. He never received an order from the Secretary of War. By reference to this volume, containing the historical facts, it will be seen that he never intimated that he would march toward the Trinity, but gave orders to the troops to unite at Donoho's. That indicated his design to advance in pursuit of the enemy to Harrisburg. He was resolved never to pass the Trinity; and if he were to perish, it should be west of that boundary. Would he have submitted to the orders of the Secretary of War, who was suspended, or any one in his place, unless it was under the written order that would vindicate him to the world and to posterity? No written order is pretended for anything he had done; and the Secretary of War, acquiescing in his competency and his ability to command, never interfered with his designs in the smallest punctilio. Thus has it been, Mr. President, that I have been driven to this recourse. I had no design, indeed I had no wish, but to pass from public life quietly and without interference. I know that I have not presented the facts in that succinct and lucid manner that I ought to have done; yet I have presented such points as I think essential, though they are documentary, and more than I would have desired, to vindicate the Commander-in-chief in the position he has taken, and to show to the world that these calumnies, so recently circulated, are prompted by the deepest malignity, and by persons whose vices, could they be