Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/68

 business. When that number was not present it was not a lawful body. The measures and counsels of the stormy spirits induced the more patriotic and conservative members to withdraw, thus leaving the Council a number incompetent, legally, to transact business. The remaining members, acting independently, proceeded to extreme measures. First: Not finding Governor Henry Smith a suitable agent for their designs, they deposed him. Second: Equally disapproving the views and plans of Gen. Sam Houston, they superseded him, and chose another as commander of the army. Besides these facts, published letters of Col. Fannin, indicating his reliance on the Council, and disregard of the authority of Gov. Smith and Gen, Houston, met his eye. The true situation of the country was disclosed to him. After having embarked in the enterprise of freeing a struggling province from Mexican tyranny, having exchanged tranquillity among friendly Indians in their forest homes for war and danger, having greeted with joy the first dawning of Anglo-Saxon liberty in the fair province of New Estramadura, that he should still be followed by persecution, and hunted down by ambitious rivals, could not fail, for a moment, to becloud his hopes and cause his great heart to be cast down with sadness. Troubled by the most painful suspense, he journeyed on to San Felipe. Two trains of reflection passed through his mind, as he rode most of the day in silence, undisturbed in his reveries by the conversation of his companions. One moment his mind wandered away to the deep solitudes of nature; to a life of communion with the Great Spirit and His sublime creations, as in the days of his boyhood and exile, where the world's treachery and persecution would not reach him. At another moment he had boldly marked out a new track for himself, and saw himself trampling dov/n all opposition, and leading a new people to liberty and independence. Toward evening he reached San Felipe. His sagacious mind had discovered that unless something was speedily done to repair present foreshadowed evils, all would be lost for which a struggling people had been contending in Texas. His purpose was fixed and nothing could change it. He addressed the people of San Felipe at the close of that remarkable day in his history. He made his official report to the Governor, and then in pursuance of instructions received from the consultation, proceeded with Major Hockley to the Cherokee nation, to form treaties with them and other tribes. He met the Indians in the Council and accomplished his mission.

In the short course of two months, events stranger than fiction had occurred, and in two months more events among the most striking in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race were to occur. Between the first of January, 1836, and the first of May, 1836, Texan struggles