Reply of Gen. Thomas J. Green, to the speech of General Sam Houston, in the Senate of the United States, August 1, 1854

BANCROFT
LIBRARY

•o

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

REPLY

OF

GEN. THOMAS J. GREEN,

TO THE

SPEECH

OF

GENERAL SAM HOUSTON,

IN THE

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

AUGUST 1, 1854.

F

WASHINGTON CITY, February 15#A, 1855.

To THE HONORABLE SENATE

OF THE UNITED STATES :

About the close of the last session of your honorable body,
and whilst I was in Texas zealously advocating the building of
the Southern Pacific railroad, Sam Houston, one of the Senators
from that State, under his senatorial privilege, made an as-
sault upon my character, so maliciously false, yea, without a
shadow of foundation in truth, that it requires a present notice
from me. He made a formal request of the Senate, which was
granted, to meet at an earlier hour than usual the next day, to
afford him the opportunity of calumniating a private citizen
from his senatorial desk; and consequently to have that
calumny propagated through the journals and printing patron-
age of the Senate — thereby making the Senate the ostentatious
endorser of the vilest tissue of falsehoods which ever found
their way to public notice through such a channel. It is plain
that with these meretricious advantages, and the further sena-
torial privilege of having reporters to reduce his bombast to
readable grammar, and that printed and franked throughout
the country, a private citizen, with both truth and justice upon
his side, must appear to disadvantage.

It is indeed painful to question the justice or policy of the
Senate, in any particular ; but when your high body sits day
after day as a shield to a mendacious colleague, to pour forth
his slanders against myself and others, which, if uttered by
him outside the Senate walls would not be credited by his
vilest sychophant, is, I trust, a sufficient reason for my protest-
ing against the use of a prerogative thus abused. This quarrel
between Senator Houston and myself, which has been so offi-
cially dignified, has nothing to do with his senatorial duties.

It was of foreign birth and growth, of many years' standing
before the days of Texas annexation. What I then said of him
was openly said, upon the stump, through the press, and from
my place in the Congress, of the Republic. That every thing
I said of him was believed by the intelligent and honest, is
clear, or this new attempt to divert merited odium at this par-
ticular time, would hardly have been made. If I have said
any thing against his official conduct since annexation, it has
been in common with the people of the South, and the general
sentiment of Texas, to denounce his abolition treason to a sec-
tion which delegated to him her security and political equality.
This right belongs as much to Senator Houston's deceived and
betrayed constituency, as does that of his new abolition allies,
to reward and praise his treason. Had the Senator have asked
for a committee to investigate the many charges, which, in
most of the States of the Union, would secure him a
life tenure in a penitentiary, I should have been saved the
trouble of thus appearing before the public. With all his pen-
chant for committees of investigation, this he dare not do ; and
having no voice in your honorable body, I claim the glorious
privilege of an American citizen, to vindicate before the pub-
lic that which I hold far more dear than life — my honor.

The sequel will show, that there are reasons which lie far
deeper than appears upon the surface, for the Senator's attack
upon me at this time. He knows full well that I have the
proofs of his many crimes — personal and political — with the
honesty and boldness to make them known ; and he was in-
formed that the proper occasion for this would be when his
treasonable insolence to that section of the Union which gave
him life and bread, would cause him to talk seriously of being
the Presidential candidate of the abolitionists. To break the
force of my testimony, by the most calumnious and stupid
falsehoods, was his real, while his ostensible object was, that
my history of the " Mier Expedition" was in the Congress
library. President Polk requested the first copies of this work
issued from the press, for the use of himself and Cabinet.
It contained information of Texas and Mexico, then new, and
for which I received the thanks of the President and other
officers of the government. It has been in the Congress

library for the last nine years ; was generally read, and as
.generally believed ; and which the concurrent testimony of all
my comrades in that sanguinary campaign, will bear witness to
its truth. I do here most solemnly avow, that I have not, in
said work, made a solitary charge upon General Houston, either
directly or by implication, which is not strictly true. This the
Senator, as well as the most intelligent men of Texas, know,
and which I will prove by the most incontestible evidence ;
and while the extensive circulation of this work, together with
its cost, is beyond the ability of him or his sycophants to sup-
press, he resorts to this mode of destroying it. His efforts so
far, have greatly increased the public desire to read it ; and for
his pains, I promise that the next edition will contain a more
full length portrait of himself. Should it not prove true to
life, language wilLbe deficient in showing np those monstrous
immoralities which constitute his life-time of iniquity ; of
fraud and falsehood ; of impiety and hypocrisy ; of inebriety,
bestiality, and villainy — all of which he attempts to palm
upon the public as "eecenfoio&y, tact, coquetry" I own that
this is severe language, and sincerely regret the necessity for
its use — if it were less severe, it would be less true.

Gen. Houston's " eccentricity, tact, and coquetry," have re-
cently caused him to pitch into Abolitionism, Know-Nothing-
ism, and Baptism. As poor an opinion as I entertain of the
first-named of these isms, I am slow to believe of that sect, that
their political astuteness would readily receive into leading
membership this Benedict Arnold, black with treason to that
section which gave him birth, — in comparison to which the
treason of Burr is exalted patriotism, — the betrayal T)y Judas
•of the Son of Peace, an excusable weakness.

It would be a gross slander upon the intelligence of the
great Know-Nothing party, to suppose that he could pack him-
self upon them for any thing except one — untrue to every moral
obligation, personal and political. But a short time since, the
senator made a speech to some Irish regiments in the New-
York Park, in which he " thanked 'God that every drop of
Uood which circulated through his heart was Irish" Is this
the blood of Know-Nothings ; or do his new peans to that party
:suit the Irish regiments f Does Ms .common slander of the

6

American people for the last twenty years, and his praises of
the faithless Indian, suit them better ? Even now, when his
own state for hundreds of miles is bleeding from the scalping-
knife of his red brethren, and that state at this time has taken
from the plough six companies of her own citizens to assist the
United States army in stopping the work of the tomahawk,
the senator prates for days, in and out of the senate, of Indian
honesty and humanity. For his leap into the Brasos, under
the sanctity of Baptism, there are other reasons, of which we
will speak hereafter. Such a leap would defile Jordan itself,
without purifying his soul, or even imposing upon the true
piety of the respected Church to which he has attached him-
self; and in vain may he elongate his face to a Puritanical
measure, and continue to drawl his words to a ghostly intona-
tion, he will not be believed. (Aristotle, the wise preceptor
of Alexander the Great, says, " Show me a man who drawls
his words, and I will show you a scoundrel" I believe that
in the whole of my large experience of mankind I never knew
this saying falsified.) Yes, he may Gloster-like, with

"a book of prayer in hand,
True ornaments to know a holy man,"

make pilgrimages the balance of his life between the Baptist
of the Brasos, and the Abolitionist of the Canada shore, with-
out convincing them that this treason and hypocrisy was for
any other purpose than to gull their numerous voters. Such
an attempt at this late day, when his head is frosted with three
score years of crime, is an insult to our political intelligence,
and the quintessence of a brutal impudence.

The first purpose of this communication is to prove to your
honorable body, and the world, the utter falsity of every charge,
and every inuendo, contained in the senator's magniloquent
tirade ; and next, to give the true reasons for this attack upon
me at this late day, interspersed with necessary remarks of
himself.

Ex-President David G. Burnett, than whom a more truthful,
talented, or purer patriot never labored for liberty, in his
review of the life of Houston, page 6, says, that " Gen. Hous-
ton has long and habitually acted on the Spanish proverb,
that ' a lie that can gain belief for one hour is worth the tell-

ing? " If tlie reporter of the New Orleans Picayune, and others
present, reported his speech truly, he seems to have screwed his
courage up to promising the senate that he would give me per-
sonal satisfaction. "Whether this promise, for even one hour,
gulled a solitary senator of the half dozen who listened to him, is
doubtful ; if so, it was more than he accomplished with any
who knew him well, and certainly myself.

Acting, however, upon the opinion of friends who thought
that it was due to the Senate, I wrote to my friend, the Hon.
Branch T. Archer, to call upon him to redeem his promise.
Before, however, my friend could see the senator, he had taken
leave of all worldly promises by his hypocritical submersion
in the Brasos, hoping, doubtless, thereby that he could also se-
cure the vote of the Baptist.

The puerile whining in his pamphlet speech, about his-
" two crushed limbs," would be laughable in a superannuated
old woman. The two flesh-wound scratches he received, the
one upon his arm and the other upon his leg, would not have
made a man of ordinary nerve lay up an hour ; though the
first was the pretext of his deserting the brave Jackson, in the
Creek nation, who conducted the whole of that eventful cam-
paign with his right arm broken and in a sling ; the other the
pretext for his deserting the army in Texas and going off to
New Orleans and Tennessee, exhibiting Santa Anna's gold-
headed cane, spurs <md saddle, which he had taken from the
captive's personal effects. After the battle of Cannae, in an
age when writing was difficult, the illustrious conqueror sent
a sack of rings taken from the fingers of the slain Roman
Knights, to the Carthaginian Senate, not as a trophy of vic-
tory, but to insure a vote for new supplies. The means was
worthy of the object intended to be accomplished. What a
contrast ! In this enlightened age for an American Com-
mander in Chief to be hawking about the personal apparel of
a captive Chief; and after satisfying his vainglory, which
ought to have shamed an untatooed Indian, he sold the saddle
to Colonel William Christie, of New Orleans, as I was informed
by himself, for five hundred dollars. What the Senator did
with the cane, spurs, and thousand dollar snuff-box, which he

8

subsequently swindled Santa Anna out of, and of which I have
more to say hereafter, I do not know.

There are numerous anecdotes of the manner in which the
Senator squalled when the arrow struck him upon his arm at
the battle of the " Horse-Shoe." The gallant old Col. John C.
Nail, who commanded a company in that action, certified that
he "Heated like a cub" and that his commanding Colonel,
John Williams, rode up at the time and damned at him for
his cowardice, which is the secret of Houston's slandering the
memory of that distinguished gentleman to this day. I refer
to the Hon. Joseph L. Williams, of Washington city, for the
truth of this incident. The Senator's cowardice and alarm,
after receiving the scratch upon his ankle at San Jacinto, has
been attested by nearly every officer, and most of the men.
President Burnett, in his review of the life of Houston,rpages
11 and 12, says : — " About three o'clock in the afternoon, the
Texian army was paraded. Col. Wharton arranged the order
of battle, and they marched with alacrity to the onset. Gen.
Houston, with a tolerable bearing (he chewed opium in those
days), rode in front of the line, until within about four hundred
yards, when he wheeled his horse half round and hollowed out,

* Present and fire.' By previous concert, the officers of the
line had determined to reserve their fire until they could see

* the white of the enemies' eyes,' and when the hasty order
was given, the word rushed along the line, < hold on ~boys — hold
your fire — rush ahead.7 Houston advanced, and when within
about two hundred yards he again, and in evident agitation,

bawled out, £ God Almighty d n you, ain't you going to

f-i-r-e ?' The same cheering words passed along the line ; the
fire was reserved, and Houston moved off to the right wing of
the army. Houston was soon afterwards wounded in the foot
or ankle, but I believe rather slightly. He made then and
afterwards a huge fuss about it. A calf will bellow at the
prick of a bodkin. As soon as the ball struck him he screamed
out, { Halt ! halt ! your General is wounded / Coss has come
up • all is lost.7 But that army did not halt. Several of the
officers called upon Gen. Rusk, the Secretary of War, who was
then in the field, to take command and push ahead. Captain
Turner, commanding the only company of regulars present,

was detailed to take charge of the wounded General, and the
rest drove on the brief battle to a noble victory. Gen. Hous-
ton never advanced one step after he was wounded ; but he
manifested a goodly portion of trepidation as the tide of battle
rolled from him." The evidence is ample, both from the late
Adjutant-General John A. Wharton and other officers, that
Gen. Busk, the Secretary of War, did give the onward order,
and he himself was amongst the foremost in that glorious
charge, which resulted in triumph. Whilst the bravery of
Gen. Busk is more than equalled by his modesty, these facts
belong to truthful history, and are the common property of the
country. But, to Senator Houston's speech.

In his very commencement he overacts the Spanish pro-
verb. With the evidence before his eyes, he commences his
speech with a falsehood — by a willful misnomer of the title of
my work. I never wrote such a work as a " History of Texas,
Mexico, and the United States." His garbled quotations, from
my work entitled the " Mier Expedition" to be fully under-
stood, must carry with them both their antecedents and
sequence, which in every instance completes the proof of all
that I have asserted. If, however, such evidence appear any-
wise unsatisfactory, I will supply additional proofs.

The Senator, in the second paragraph of his speech, says
that in my work of four hundred and eighty-four pages, he
finds his name recorded " one hundred and seventeen times"
This may or may not be so. I have not taken the pains to
ascertain its truth, nor is it important whether true or false.
If it be true, this follows, that I had to use his name thus often
to prove that which I charged upon him, which had immediate
connection with the main object of the book ; but that his
name has been used maliciously or untruly, is wholly false.
Had I have been pleased to use it maliciously, or to have gone
into a detail of the Senator's 'life and doings, seventeen thou-
sand times the use of his name would not have recorded the
enormities of his past career — his vulgar blackguardism — his
vile debaucheries — his universal mendacity — his numerous
perjuries — his personal swindles — his. official peculations — his
annexations coquetry — his want of faith, and treason to politi-
cal parties — his hypocrisy, impiety, and opium eating — his

10

desertion of western Texas, and leaving it open to the Mexican
enemy — his dastardly cowardice — his dirty polygamy an.d de-
sertion of his former wives, with his pagan brutality to some
of them and their young.

The same paragraph also makes the lamented Gen. Stephen
F. Austin the subject of eulogy. This eleventh hour tribute
comes most ungraciously. This deceased patriot, who we de-
fended, before his death, against the Senator's slanders, passed
from earth more than eighteen years ago. He carried with
him the regrets of every honest man in Texas, and has now a
warm place in their memories. But, in the most eventful
period of the Texas strife, during the summer of 1836, it is
well known by hundreds in Texas, that Gen. Houston lay
drunk for months, at the house of his land partner, Mr. Phil.
Sublet, in eastern Texas, swearing that he would hang this
same General Austin as a traitor. Gen. Austin, the Honorable
Branch T. Archer, and the lamented William H. Wharton,
had just returned from the United States as commissioners, and
were urging on the defences against the common enemy.
About that time, or soon after, Houston was elected President
by a popular vote, and having heard of his slanders against
Austin, I wrote him a letter, the copy of which I now hold,
certified to by a gentleman, well known in Texas for his integ-
rity, insisting upon Austin's appointment as Secretary of State.
He was so appointed by Houston, in the fall of that very year
in which he was so often threatened to be hanged by the
Senator. Whether this appointment was the result of my
letter, which Houston warmly complimented, or the fear of
Austin's growing popularity, is immaterial. The Presidential
election of 1856 approaches, and the manes of Austin must be
appeased, as the attention of the people of Texas are turned to
another of their citizens for that office, in the person of Sena-
tor Rusk, who was the uniform friend of Austin, and whose
claims to their confidence is a thousand-fold greater than that
of this political empiric.

The third and fourth paragraphs of the senator's speech are
not only notoriously false both in and out of Texas, but which I
will show from his subjoined letters to me, written in his own
hand, and now in my possession, subject to the inspection of

11

every senator and other gentlemen who may wish to see them.
The sobriquet which he applies to me is the invention of his
own chaste conception, and tittered under his senatorial pro-
tection, around which he also throws the panoply of the Church.
That any other Texian ever applied such an epithet to me, is
what I never heard, or do I believe ; nor have I any fear of
such ever being the case ; and if the Brasos river shall wash
the foul lie from his throat, it will possess greater virtues than
those who know the senator hope for. The only sobriquet of
the kind I ever knew applied to a Texian, was this very one
which the senator for years applied to himself. For years,
during his drunken orgies, it was a common boast for him to
say, that " I am the Hg dog of Texas — the * master cur of the
tan-yard" I believe that this was the only political truth this
political charlatan ever was guilty of.

The senator says in this paragraph, that " General Thomas
J. Green is what he calls himself" My unconditional com-
mission as Brigadier-General of the first brigade of the Texas
army, signed by President David G. Burnett, and countersign-
ed by Thomas J. Rusk, then secretary of war, on the 19th of
March, 1836, was tendered me without solicitation on my part,
by the unanimous vote of the cabinet. This commission I
cherish as an honorable testimonial of my service in the cause
of Texian liberty, for which I received repeatedly the thanks
of the leading men in Texas, and among them the senator him-
self, as his letters will show, every word of which is written in
his own hand. I was elected to congress, not " once" as the
senator falsely charges, " by the army," but three different
times, by two of the largest and most intelligent counties of the
republic. In 1836 I was unanimously returned a member
from the county of Bexar. Some doubts were entertained
whether I was constitutionally eligible to a seat, being at that
time in command of the first brigade in the field. The army
was in great need. It was much feared that their interest
would be overlooked ; and, mainly at the urgent solicitations
of my friends, Generals Thomas J. Rusk and Felix Huston,
also in the field, did I consent to take my seat in congress, to
sustain the army, as well as other public duty. The following
was Senator Houston's opinion of my eligibility :

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"EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
" Columbia, Texas, 25th Oct., 1836.
" Gen. THOMAS J. GREEN,

" Texian Army.

"SiR : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor, under
date of the 19th inst, with its enclosures. In reply, I can only say that it
was my opinion, that there was no constitution for Texas, until the final
action of the people upon it, which was their vote in favor of its adoption.

" On my inauguration into office, I found you in possession of a seat in
the House of Representatives, and, as each house is to judge of the competency
of its members, I can not, and will not, question the rectitude of their 'course.
As to the other subject contained in your letter, it will not be overlooked.
" With high consideration,

" I am your obt. servt.,

" SAM HOUSTON,

"President."

I took my seat accordingly. The journals of that first Con-
gress, and the book "of laws which followed, will show what
that Congress did, and what participation I had in that result.
The army was re-organized during that first session, and while
I was a member. President Houston nominated me for the
command of the army. My nomination was rejected by a ma-
jority of one vote ; several of President Houston's friends vot-
ing against it, because, as they said, that I was still a mem-
ber of Congress, and therefore constitutionally ineligible. Sus-
pecting Houston of conniving against me, I denounced him, to
which he replied by the following letter ; and also sent the
Attorney-General J. Pinckney Henderson to me, whose honor
and veracity has never been questioned, with the offer of Ad-
jutant-General of the army, which I refused, as I did his other
proffers of office.

"COLUMBIA, TEXAS, December 27, 1836.
"GEN. THOMAS J. GREEN:

" SIR : — Your favor of yesterday having been placed in my hands late this
evening, I seize a moment to reply to it. In personal conversation I did
really suppose I had satisfied you, that you had no reason to feel either mor- ]
tification or disgrace ; but it seems that you labor under a feeling of both, i
I truly regret that you should do either — nor does any cause exist why you
should. I certainly apprised you from the first that I should nominate a
senior and junior Brigadier-General, but would not nominate a Major-General,
but that I should keep vacant. When this was in contemplation I intended,
as I did, to nominate you as senior Brigadier. Subsequently I heard that

13

constitutional objections would be made to the confirmation of your appoint-
ment. I frankly stated to you that such would be the case, as I had learned.
I did not at first believe there was any constitutional objection ; but on exa-
mination I was satisfied there was, and frankly stated the fact to you, but
never did so express myself to any one where it could prejudice the confirma-
tion of the nomination.

" You then alleged that the same objection would not obtain against you
as Major-General, and you seem to have contemplated no other obstacle.
Be it so. I am disposed to serve my friends as far as any man ought to do,
either in public or private life ; but you will admit as a public functionary I
have a trust to exercise, and in the use of it I must be limited, and must be gov-
erned by some sort of principle. How then, from the situation of the country,
was I bound to act — taking into view the state of the army and the country ?
We had less than a brigade of men in the field ; nor do we expect, without a
change, to have two brigades in the field before the spring, and less than that
number cannot constitute a division. Through favoritism I might call the
present force a ' Division,' but it would be mockery of everything military.
The curse of the country has been an excess of officers, as you well know,
for when I came into office, the force in the field was reported at six hundred
and fifty, and the number of officers commissioned five hundred and ninety
two, as well as I recollect.

"You state in your note that you, with others, sustained this administra-
tion against attempts to embarrass or destroy it. That you did I am satis-
fied, and I presume that you acted from principle, as I conceive I have done
in relation to my nominations to the Senate. If you feel that the * appointing
power ' has treated you wrong, I seriously regret that you are so impressed ;
and I am well assured that when you reflect calmly upon the subject, that
your impressions must, if from one fact only, and that fact is that I preferred
no man to you, and in nowise attempted to pretermit your claims. Your
mortification now, as you were rejected on constitutional grounds, must be
imaginary; but had I nominated you for- Major-General, when the army and
the country did not require it, you would have had grounds to have com-
plained of a different character, or I was not correctly advised. As a man
I was and am your friend. As an officer I have done you justice. Had I
permitted your urgency to have induced me to nominate you as Major-Gene-
ral, with the knowledge which I possessed of matters, you must justly have
complained of me for want of candor and friendship. I wished to place you
in the command of the army. I attempted it, and the wish failed.

" I appreciated fairly your zeal, your activity and your usefulness in the
cause of Liberty in Texas. I have evinced my confidence in you as an officer ;
and as a friend and a gentleman you shall never have reason to doubt my
regard.

" I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

"SAM HOUSTON."

14:

I have copied the above letter entire, that it may speak
for itself. Now, it will be recollected that I am the same
General Green which he wished to place in command of the
army — thus, says he : "I appreciated fairly your zeal, your
activity, and your usefulness in the cause of liberty in Texas.
I have evinced my confidence in you as an officer / and as a
friend and as a gentleman you shall never have REASON to
doubt my regard" But President Houston had taken a solemn
oath to support the constitution of the Republic, and yet he
thought me so well qualified to command the army, he violates
his oath to place me in that command. Hear him in his letter.
" I did not at first believe there was any constitutional objec-
tion, but on examination, I was satisfied there was, and frankly
stated the fact to you / but never did so express myself to any
one where it could prejudice the confirmation of the nomina-
tion" What he says about the number of men and officers in
the field at the time he came into office, is one of his ad cap-
tandum falsehoods, which he has all his life been ready off-
hand to assert, and give them a seeming truth by the particu-
larity of some odd number in figures, or some " eccentric " ex-
pression. The Texas army had never been so strong — so much so
that Generals Thomas J. Rusk, Felix Huston, and myself, had
just previously held a council of war upon invading Matamo-
ras. But suppose his assertion was true ; then it is plain that
he did not do his duty in nominating myself and Felix Huston,
as first and second Generals of Brigade, and afterwards Gen-
eral A. Sydney Johnson.

I will here notice that portion of the Senator's speech, in
which he speaks of my filibuster brigade of " 230 men, in
1836." As I have more to say upon this subject hereafter, I
will only for the present give a sample of what shameless
falsehoods pervade every line of this production. The Sen-
ator, in one part of his speech, asks " why did he (I) not go to
the proper office for information ?" I have done so in more
than one instance, as he will have cause to regret, before I
have done with him. The following is a sample of my official
information : —

15

"ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
AUSTIN, TEXAS, November 6th, 1854.

" I hereby certify that by the muster-rolls on file in this office, which said
rolls were duly approved and certified to by the late John A. Wharton,
Secretary of War, on the 25th day of September, 1836, and certified to by
the proper officers belonging to the 1st brigade of the Texas army, under the
command of Brigadier General Thomas J. Green, that there were nine
hundred and six rank and file, including officers ; and that so far as it appears
from said muster-rolls, there does not appear an over proportion of officers in
said Brigade.

" JAMES S. GILLETT, Adjutant General.

On the 1st of January, 1837, when I -was about visiting
the United States, President Houston again wrote me his
"Dear General," imploring me to send " troops and supplies"
as I had extensively done the Spring previous. On the 2nd
of August, 1837, he again wrote me, repudiating Colonel Geo.
"W. Hockley's draft of $500, in my favor, for money which I
had advanced Colonel Hockley in Washington city, upon
Houston's letter of credit. In this letter he acknowledges to
have received through me, from Colonel "William Christie,
five hundred dollars, which was for the aforesaid Santa Anna
saddle. This letter I still hold for the inspection of those who
may doubt. My answer to which, was uncompromising de-
nunciation of his shameless meanness. He never ventured to
write me again. He found that I was beyond the price of his
official bribery, with the boldness to denounce his many cor-
ruptions, which every day were becoming more apparent.

The most cool and barefaced set of the Senator's falsehoods,
form the whole of the 5th paragraph of his speech, which I
here insert verbatim.

" In 1836 the boundary of Texas was declared, by an act of the Legisla-
ture of that Republic. The first constitutional President, then in the dis-
charge of his duty, drew up a description of the boundary as it had been
pointed out after the battle of San Jacinto, but had not yet become a law. He
drew up the law, and gave it to the President of the Senate, by whom it was
given for presentation to an accidental Senator, this identical Thomas Jeffer-
son Green. He introduced it, and it became the law of Texas."

Short as this paragraph is, it contains not less than six
stupid falsehoods ; it was not the duty of the President to draw

16

up the law — lie did not draw it up — lie did not give it to the
President of the Senate ; the President of the Senate did not
give it to an " accidental Senator, this identical Thomas Jeffer-
son Green." Neither was I a member of the Senate, or was
Houston the President of the Republic. So far from these as-
sertions of the Senator being true, these are the facts which
the Journals of the House of Representatives, of which I was a
member, will show ; which not only every living member of
that house will bear witness, but which is a matter of general
notoriety, and have been published time and again for the last
eighteen years, and never before denied or even questioned.

" Journal of the House of Representatives, of the Republic of Texas, Oc-
tober llth, 1836, page 40. Mr. Green gave notice tluit he would on some future
day ask leave to introduce a l)ill to define the western boundary of Texas" Mark
the date — David G. Burnett was then President of the Republic. Again,
page 116 :

" 'Mr. Green, introduced a bill to be entitled an act to define the bound-
aries of the Republic of Texas.' Read first time and passed to a second read-
ing without opposition. Again, page 259 :

" Mr. Green move'd to take up the bill entitled ' An Act to define the
boundaries of Texas,' and the question being taken, was carried ; and the same
being read the second time,

" Mr. Green moved to strike out the second and third sections of the bill ;
and the question being taken, was carried.

" Mr. Branch moved to suspend the rule, and read the bill a third time
forthwith ; and the question being taken, was carried. The Speaker asked
shall the bill pass ? and the question being taken, was carried." This not all.

I not only introduced the measure before Houston was Pre-
sident, but carried it through the committee of foreign rela-
tions, under the strongest presentiment of its future conse-
quence, did press it through Congress to a final passage, against
the opinion of my warmest personal friends, " that it was un-
necessary" When this was accomplished, I went in person to
President Houston (he in the meantime had been inaugurated),
on the last days of the session, and had much difficulty in get-
ting him to sign it, as he said that " there was no necessity for
such a law" In 1846, President Polk, in several messages,
informed the Congress that, upon this law " he had ordered
General Taylor to the Rio Grande, and that he would defend

17

that "boundary" The Santa Anna treaty with Texas, in 1836,
had failed, and President Polk had little other legal or interna-
tional right, to defend the Rio Grande. He complimented me
for my " happy thought" in being the author of said law, and
said without it he never would have moved up to that line.

General Houston was at that time a member of the United
States Senate, and made speeches upon the war ; but never until
this late day, when he supposed that proofs were difficult to be
obtained, has he had the unblushing hardihood to claim the
credit of the law. Such falsehoods as these, the Senator and a
few of his servile minions call " tact." In 1848 he was at the
democratic Baltimore convention intriguing to have himself
taken up as the Compromise candidate for the presidency, and
when his name was not even called in the convention, in con-
nection with this office, he shrugged his shoulders, and said
that he " was fixing the thing for '52." This both he and his
friends called tact. In 1852 he had humbugged the demo,
cratic party in Texas to believe that " that was the time for
him" A majority of the Texas delegates controlled the four
Texas votes, and with a half dozen abolitionists, voted for him.
General Pierce was nominated. The Senator again shrugged
his shoulders, and said, " I am working for '56." Another
edition of " tact." Since which time, he has tacked into the
Abolitionists, tacked into the Know Nothings, and tacked into
the Baptists, with occasional interludes into temperance, and
Indians, with parenthetical spasmodic slander of Pierce, Doug-
lass, Cass, Buchanan, and every other gentleman who is
talked of for the presidency. For sensible men to suppose that
such " tact " will ever place him in the White House, is grossly
calumnious of the American people. Tacking into the Aboli-
tionists may not scatter them as a polecat would a hen-roost —
they are fond of the fetid, and that is a matter of taste. But
that the great Know Nothing party, or the meek and Christian
Baptist, would admit him into their political confidence, any
sooner than they would pestilence to their domestic hearths, is
what I cannot believe ; and I predict that after '56 his next
tack will be into his first love — that he will return to the whis-
key bottle, as a " sow to the wallow."

I do here most positively declare, and I will stake my life

2

18

and honor upon its truth, that the Senator's pamphlet speech
before me, independent of what I have already noticed, con-
tains THEEE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX positive, and I believe
wilful, malicious, premeditated falsehoods against myself,
Commodore Moore, Colonel Fisher, ex-President Burnet, and
others, besides his calumnious inuendoes and false deductions.
To follow up and establish each of these falsehoods seriatim,
which I have the proofs to do, would not only swell this com-
munication to a tedious length, but would subject me to the
oft repeated and stupid charge of egotism. But who, I may
ask, is not an egotist, save the stupid dolt, who never made his
mark in any walk of life. The greatest men who have figured
in the world's history, from Alexander to Napoleon, are the
greatest egotists, because it was necessary for them to speak in
the personal pronoun oftener than other men. Even the Sena-
tor himself, had he spoken truth for the last forty years, would
have been a greater egotist than they. To speak, however, of
him in the same century with such names, is slander upon
true nobility and truth — it is the coupling of the Bengal tiger
with the skunk — the " sublime with the ridiculous " — " hype-
rion to a satyr."

If I must be an egotist, in the vulgar acceptation of the term,
it will be because the most of these three hundred and seventy-
six falsehoods are charged against myself. I will endeavor,
however, to condense his tautology of falsehoods to a clear illus-
tration und a readable length.

A long time the Senator has been noted for an inuendo
system of attack upon personal character, male and female,
when he could not, with any show of plausibility, make a
direct charge. This system is the more infamous, because it
seeks avoidance of responsibility, and leaves the party accused
without means cf answering a tangible charge. Thus, when
the Senator was oxce discarded by a lady of high character in
South Carolina, he m^de a peace-offering to his unmanly coxcomb
nature, by saying, in his peculiar manner, that "her coachman
was a little too likely" What volumes of dirty slander were
here meant ! Again, when the public opinion of Nashville,
Tennessee, made him fly the State for his vile treatment of his
chaste and amiable lady — when Thomas Crutcher, the octo-

19

genarian friend of Andrew Jackson, who had been forty years
the Treasurer of the State, and was proverbial for his blunt
honesty and purity, openly denounced him as a " wretch who
ought to ~be hanged" — he pretended to say nothing of the
causes of the separation, — this he could not do without making
himself a villain — he for years would charge himself with a
sufficient amount of Dutch courage to say, " that he did not
believe there was a virtuous woman in the world " — that the
Bible proved that the Virgin Mary herself was what neither
language or morals will permit me to repeat. This is oue of the
ten thousand sins which he pretends to have washed out by
the Brasos.

So it is now, he speaks by inuendo of my JSTorth Carolina
and Florida " antecedents," meaning thereby to convey the
idea that they were not honorable. Whilst that I deny the
insinuation, as it is maliciously villainous, and leave the thou-
sands of my acquaintance in my native State and Florida, to
answer this slander, I do fearlessly say that the antecedents of
no man in either State are more honorable. The first time that
I ever saw General Houston, was in the fall of 1824. I was
just then out of school, and for my activity and usefulness in
the cause of Jackson, was appointed, over many leading gen-
tlemen of the State, bearer of the first votes for that distin-
guished patriot which crossed the Roanoke to Washington
city. It may be considered an honorable antecedent to know
that I was the first individual east of the Alleghany, and per-
haps in the Union, in April, 1820, then a student at Chapel
Hill, the University of my native State, who made a speech in
favor of Jackson for the Presidency. This fact is well recol-
lected by my numerous college friends, among whom I may
name General Lucius J. Polk, of Murray county, Tennessee,
and the Right Rev. Bishop Otey, of the same State ; and, I am
proud to say, that I enjoyed the friendship of that great man
to the day of his death.

I will here relate an incident of the Senator himself, — it is
this : — Just four weeks previous to the death of General Jack-
son, I spent the day with him at the Hermitage. He was then
greatly excited upon the subject of the annexation of Texas.
It had safely carried his friend, Mr. Polk, into the Presidency.

20

while it had accomplished a darling desire with him : — the
defeat of Mr. Clay. I was just from Texas. General Jackson
asked " how was Houston about annexation ?" I replied that
"the most intelligent men of Texas believed that he was oppos-
ed to the measure ; that in his cooler moments he pretended a
quasi friendship for it, but that just previously he had made a
speech in Montgomery County, at Spring Creek, I had under-
stood, with whiskey enough in him to make him tell the truth
(in vino veritas\ and he there denounced the measure." The
General replied that " he has written me letters lately in favor
of it, but from what you tell me, and what I see in the papers,
his course is very astonishing." I replied, " You do not sup-
pose, General, that Houston is capable of writing you any thing
but what he supposed would be pleasing." The old hero nod-
ded assent, but I regret that he departed this life before Hous-
ton's public acknowledgment of my charge. To excuse him-
self from this charge, the Senator soon after came to New Or-
leans, and in a public speech said that he was " coquetting "
with the British Minister. Thus the President of a Kepublic
of enlightened Anglo- American citizens, to acknowledge, that
by falsehood and dissimulation he was dealing with a great
nation, which had been among the first to recognize our nation-
ality. This will long remain in American Diplomacy the cli-
max of national perfidy.

The most perfidious part of this transaction, is not in his
acknowledging the disgrace, by calling it " coquetry," but in
his heartless attempt in trying to shift it oif upon his successor,
President Anson Jones, who from the following correspon-
dence shows that though he, Jones, was at that time, 1844,
Secretary of State, under President Houston, yet that he sus-
pected Houston's integrity so much that he preserved the evi-
dences of his guilt, in his own handwriting.

"BARRINGTON, Washington co., Texas,
October 19th, 1848.

To the Editor of the Western Texian:

" DEAR SIR : — Very many misrepresentations having been made in relation
to the relative course of Gen. HOUSTON and myself, on the subject of the an-
nexation of Texas to the United States, the whole matter will be placed in its

21

proper light before the public by the following order addressed to me, by that
gentleman, in 1844, on the eve of his departure from the seat of govern-
ment :

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, )
Washington, Sept., 24th, 1844. $

HON. ANSON JONES,

Secretary of State, &c., <&c.

" SIR : — Let despatches be forthwith sent to Dr. Smith, to the care of Mr.
Rate, (vide note «,) at London.

"Let instructions be given Mr. Rate, to forward said despatches, in the
event of Dr. Smith's departure homeward, to Col. Daingerfield, at the Hague.
Let full powers and letters of credence be also transmitted to Col. Dainger-
field, to be used by him, in the event of Dr. Smith's leaving Europe, in
conducting the necessary negotiations with the courts of England and
France.

" Let our representatives (Dr. Smith or Col. Daingerfield) be instructed to
complete the proposed arrangement (5) for the settlement of our Mexican diffi-
culties as soon as possible — giving the necessary pledges as suggested in the
late despatch of Dr. Smith on this subject, but adhering to the Rio Grande
as a boundary, sine qua non.

"Also, let our representative be instructed to enter at once into the proper
negotiations and arrangements for the admission of our products into the
ports of England, (and France, if possibly,) upon the most favorable terms —
suggesting to the European parties that now is the most favorable time for
such an arrangement with this country, in consequence of the absence of
the obstacles which a treaty with the United States might interpose.

" SAM HOUSTON."

NOTES.

" (a) Mr. Lacklin Macintosh Rate, a London merchant, and at the same time
an agent for the government of Texas.

" (b) The 'proposed arrangement' was a 'Diplomatic Act,' which, in the
language of Dr. Smith's despatch, ' would give to the European Governments,
parties to it, a perfect right to forbid, for all time to come, the annexation of Texas
to the United States : ' and the ' pledges ' spoken of were to the same purpose,
or that Texas would never consent to the measure.

" This, you will perceive, was the " Vermilion Edict," and had I complied
with it, annexation would have been as completely killed as a man would be
by having his head cut off, or a European war superadded to the Mexican
one : — so I incurred the responsibility of postponing the same, and afterwards
consummated the measure of annexation hi direct opposition to the ' policy
of Gen. Houston,' as developed in the above letter. I trust that without fur-

22

ther comment from me, this communication, made from a just regard to the
establishment of truth, will be satisfactory to those who may have been led
into error in relation to the respective agency of Gen. Houston and myself in
connection with this great measure of American policy. Some delay has oc-
curred in making it, from the hope that Gen. Houston would himself inform
the public of the facts which it contains.

" Very respectfully,

" Your ob't serv't,

"ANSON JONES."

When Houston attempted to sacrifice his old secretary of
state, to screen himself from an infamous treason to his own
native land, that secretary had the boldness to place the trea-
son on his old master's forehead, in characters that can never
be effaced. What is the senator's course in reference to this
charge ? Though it was made by President Jones, through
the public press on the 19th of October, 1848, against him,
Houston, while in the United States Senate, he makes no pub-
lic vindication, because the proofs were in the hands of his
accuser — he shrinks from the charge publicly, and contents
himself by retailing in private the dirtiest calumnies of his
old friend. Here was a charge of corruption and treason
against him as senator — where then was his senatorial privi-
lege ? From his subsequent practice it would not have been
difficult for him to have obtained the protection of your hon-
orable body. To turn from this digression upon coquetry.

I was honored with a seat in the legislature of my native
state from the county of Nathaniel Macon, when a very young
man. I have since been a member of the Legislatures of Flo-
rida and California, and in the congress of the Republic of
Texas from every county in those states wherever I have lived.
I have been honored with other high offices from those states,
which every one but Houston will acknowledge, and even he
knows, that I have filled with strict integrity and success.
Every where my numerous acquaintances will bear testimony
that no man has lived more for his friends. That my purse
and house in my native state, in Florida, in Texas, in Jamaica
Plain, in California — and wherever I have lived — have ever
been, to prodigality, open to my fellow-men. There is not a
transaction of my life that will not bear honorable scrutiny,

23

I invite the most rigid now, and on all occasions. I was a
citizen of Texas from early in 1836 to the spring of 184:5.
During this time the country had been broken up by the das-
tardly flight of Gen. Houston before an inferior force of Mex-
icans. The people of Texas were at this time poor in money ;
they owned lands, but could not eat lands. Money was so
scarce, that even the most wealthy were frequently without
sufficient to pay hotel bills and traveling expenses. All this
time, whether I was in Congress, in the field, or in the dungeons
of Mexico, my house was the refuge of my soldier comrades,
and numerous other friends, some of whom, for humanity sake,
I am sorry to say, though they enjoyed my open hospitality in
those trying times, have since played the sycophant to the
senator, for " filthy official lucre."

By the senator's own showing, his antecedents, whether for
good or bad, had their origin in "himself" — had they have
been good and honorable, a corresponding credit would have
attached to him, as he admits that his forefathers did nothing
for " themselves, himself, or their country." "Whatever my own
may have been, it is with unspeakable pride that I look back
upon my lineal ancestors — the Greens, Hawkins, Macons and
Christmas', all patriots, and distinguished patriots of Seventy-
Six ; and that not a drop of tory blood circulates in my veins.
If pride can be greater, it is that when I look upon the tomb
of Solomon Green, my own venerated father, and see that " HE

WAS A REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOT, AND ONE OF THE ADOPTERS OF THE

FEDERAL CONSTITUTION," and that he carried with him to the
grave, the homage of a large community. To me there is
something sublimely beautiful in that part of the Chinese
ethics, which teaches one to do nothing to disgrace departed
ancestors. The senator, whose disregard of the living is so
flagrant, can feel but little indeed for the reputation of the
departed.

What the senator speaks of in this connection of my run-
ning away from Florida, for debt, is as infamously false as the
"balance of his charges. I had been a successful planter, and
the representative of the county in which the seat of govern-
ment is situated. The fever of the country swept my family
from me, with the exception of an only son, then four years of

24:

age. Him I carried to his uncle, in Tennessee, and myself
plunged into the Texas revolution, with no selfish calculation
of cost. Before doing so, I had my property sold by public
notice, and every cent of my indebtedness paid, for which I
was responsible either on my own individual account, or as
security. Two years after this I returned from my duties in
Texas, and received nearly ten thousand dollars as a balance
due me, and have at this time patented lands unsold in the
county. These facts are well-known to ex-Senator James D.
Westcott ; Governors Call, Duval, Brown, and many other
gentlemen of Tallahassee. I feel most sensibly a disgust natu~
ral to every man of honor, in being compelled to defend him-
self against charges though false, and made by a noted falsi-
fier, yet, so made under the sanctity of official position ; my
purpose therefore, at present, is to deal with facts, rather than
rhetoric.

The special pleading of the -.senator makes me charge him
in 1850 as having said that the late John C. Calhoun, when
Secretary of "War, dismissed him, Houston, from a /Sw5-agency
of the Cherokee Indians for " defaulting." He thus places in
my mouth a charge which I never made, because it was the
only one he could defend. My recollection of this circum-
stance is this : that General Wallace, a member of Congress
from South Carolina, asked me if I knew of a long settled hos-
tility of Gen. Houston to Mr. Calhoun. I answered in the
affirmative, and said that since I first knew Houston, 1824, he
had always been in the habit of abusing Mr. Calhoun, who
had turned him out of a sub-agency of the Cherokee Indians.
It would have been unnecessary for me to have informed a
member of Congress that he was turned out as a " defaulter"
of the government, for the department would have shown that
fact — nor did I suppose that such was the case, that a sw£>-agent
was entrusted with public funds. This responsibility I sup-
posed belonged to the head-agency. But I did suppose, that
his dismissal from office was owing to some petit larceny pecu-
lations or on account of his having married one of the Chero-
kee squaws. Does that senator deny that he was turned out
of office, or made to vacate it ? — if so, let the correspondence of
the department speak. It is well known to the Senate, that on

25

sundry occasions Senator Houston made nullification the osten-
sible pretext of his opposition to the distinguished South Caro-
linian, who never would condescend to reply to the "big dog of
Texas" That great man would as soon have handled a dead
dog under an August son. Does the senator deny that he has
abused Mr. Calhoun for more than thirty years ? — this fact is
known to hundreds ; yet, nullification is only half that age.
A sycophant, as was Houston, to the great Jackson, might
shield himself for the time under such a battery, so that he
could vent more effectually his spleen against the great nulli-
fier. So did he, for years, vilify and^ calumniate the lamented
Henry Clay, because he supposed it pleasing to Gen. Jackson.
For years it was a common slander of Houston to say that Mr.
Clay's hostility to Jackson was on account of Gen. Jackson
having run Mr. Clay out of a tavern in Kentucky. Yet, I
have been told that when he, Houston, was sent on to Ashland
as one of the Senate's Committee with the remains of that
lamented patriot, that he, Houston, in the presence of the
people of Kentucky, stooped and kissed the coffin of the
illustrious dead, with a sanctimonious phiz which would have
shamed any puritan face in the days of the roundheads.
Was such unblushing hypocrisy ever before witnessed ? I have
related this incident to illustrate in part the character of the
senator, whose hardihood could speak, publish and circulate,
in one pamphlet, under senatorial privilege, and with the pub-
lic money, five hundred Hack-hearted lies. This is a hard
word ; but no other so well befits a truthful reply and this oc-
casion. I will not attempt here to follow this senatorial harle-
quin through his political tactics, tergiversations, antics. I
have more important facts for the public ; but on one occasion
he said from his place in the Senate, when one of General Jack-
son's old friends turned freesoiler, that " if the immortal hero
of the hermitage were upon earth, there would not be an olea-
ginous spot left of him" the freesoiler. This former friend of
the deceased, however, had the boldness to " kick the dead
lion," as soon as breath was out of his body. Not so with the
senator. Ten years he attempted to act the jackall upon the
reputation of the illustrious dead ; and, after trying by every
surreptitious means to place the well-earned mantle of the de-

26

ceased upon his own beastly nature, which was nobly resisted
by the faithful hard-shell democrats, he, too, turns freesoiler.
Now, what kind of spot is left of the senator ? Every honest
man will say a DIRTY SPOT.

The senator's <mfo'-southern fling at the Texas Pacific Rail-
road has a double object. Whilst it is to please his abolition
supporters in the North, it has a home purpose deeply mali-
cious. The zeal and ability with which his colleague General
Rusk advocates this great enterprise, is every way creditable to
his foresight and patriotism. If the road shall be built (which fact
I can inform Gen. Houston is beyond the reach of his malig-
nity), it will add to his (Rusk's) deserved popularity, and to
that extent it has a rancorous place in the heart of Houston.

Not an inconsiderable portion of the senator's pamphlet
speech is an oft-repeated charge l>y him of corruption on the
part of President Burnet, in entering into treaty stipulations
with Gen. Santa Anna, after the battle of San Jacinto. It is
not my purpose here to defend President Burnet. There lives
not a man so well able to do it as himself, and which he has
often done, to the entire satisfaction of every honest man who
chooses to inform himself of facts. President Burnet's emi-
nently patriotic service, and his uniform poverty for the last
twenty years in Texas, is a sufficient vindication from the slan-
ders of ten thousand such tongues as Houston's. And here we
might with good reason ask, whence came all the senator's
wealth ? This we will answer hereafter. But, says the sen-
ator, " Santa Anna was told that the Commander-in-Chief had
no power to enter into negotiations with him ; " but in the
next breath he admits that he did enter into negotiations with
him, by requiring Santa Anna to make Gen. Filisola, then in
command, to evacuate the country, which was done. The sen-
ator may well squirm upon this subject. Thousands of the
most intelligent men of Texas believe that his trip to Or-
leans was to receive the amount of the captive's promise,
rather than the healing of the scratch upon his ankle. I will
here ask the senator where is the letter upon this subject, which
was written to President Lamar, and filed in the office of the
Secretary of State in 1841. President Houston came into office
the second term in 1842, and this letter, and many other proofs

27

of his villainy, have been stolen from that office. I have re-
cently had occasion to examine said office with much care, not
only for that letter, but for the one he so boastfully referred me to
that office for — the one which caused the " decimation of the
Mier prisoners : " neither is to be found. But Commodore E.
M. Moore holds one in President Houston's own hand writing,
written on that identical day, and signed in his well-known
signature. I will here give it without the alteration of a
comma. His partisan sycophants have denied that such a
letter was in existence. I invite the whole Senate, the whole
American Congress, to call and see for themselves. I invite
all Texians, Abolitionists, Know-Nothings, Baptists — all honest
men every where, and of every party, to call and satisfy them-
selves of this most infamous of all stealing in the history of
Kepublican America.

" WASHINGTON (Texas),

" Colonel Bryan, 24th January, 1843.

" Texian Consul,

"New Orleans.

" My Dear Sir, — When you arrive at Orleans, if you can, have the enclosed
Bill filled, and as you pass by Galveston you will be authorised by Gail Bor-
den, jun.,* Esq. to draw on him for the amount of the purchases, at sixty or
ninety days. I desire that you should see that the carriage or double ba-
rouch, will track the usual width of waggons for the road.

" You will be judge of the quality of the articles and their prices, regarding
economy in their purchase.

"The Furniture-Calico you will select, but take care to select none such as
will exhibit Turkey Gobblers, Peacocks, Bears, Elephants, Wild Boars, or
Stud Horses ! ! ! Vines, Flowers, or any figures of taste, you can select.

" I hope you will send them by some careful, clever fellow ; and as I am
so poor, if you can make a bargain for the freight, it might be well!

" Consign them to my friend Borden, and he will settle the freight!

"I will rely upon you in all things, as I have always done, and will only
say this is a l Stationery ' Bill! ! !

" You will please present Mrs. Houston and myself to Col. and Madam
Christy, also to Mr. Caruthers and family.

" Very truly, thy friend,

"SAM HOUSTON.'"
* Collector of the Port.

28

" GENERAL HOUSTON'S MEMORANDUM.

" 2 setts Guitar Strings,

" 2 barrels excellent Flour,

"2 do • do Sugar,

"1 do do Soap,

" 2 sacks do Coffee (Java),

" 1 barrel do Herrings,

" i do do Mackerel (No. 1),

" 1 keg do Lard,

" 1 do do Goshen Butter,

" 1 barrel Apples,

" 1 do Buckwheat,

" 1 box Prime Tea (Young Hyson),

" 1 Barouch (excellent), 4 seats, with shafts, tongue, and double harness,
with a whip and all complete,

" 1 Good Dearbourn Waggon and Harness,

" 1 sett neat white China, for Coffee,

" 2 Wash Pitchers and Bowls,

" 1 neat Wash Stand,

" 1 Bolt fine white grass Linnen,

" 3 or 4 Bolts white cotton Furniture Fringe,

" 1 Bolt fine Calico (handsome),

"1 do coarse do,

"1 do Furniture Calico,

"1 do do Dimity,

"1 do Linnen Diaper, for Towels,

" 1 Crimping Iron,

" 6 yards fine Cambric Linnen,

" 3 fine large Silk Pocket Handkerchiefs,

" 3 pair Silk and 3 pair Cotton Socks,

" 1 handsome Pocket Knife (pretty large),

" To be filled by Col. Wm. Bryan for his friend,

" SAM HOUSTON.
" WASHINGTON, 26th January, 1843."

Let it be recollected that this " Stationery " Bill was filled
and paid for, as directed by President Houston ; that when
the articles arrived at Galveston from Orleans, they were car-
ried up the Brasos Eiver to Washington, by Capt. John N.
Reed, the present popular Sheriff of Galveston, then in com-
mand of a steamer ; and before he could collect his freight
bill, this identical Senator Houston made him make it out
for express service, and it was so paid. Sugar and Soap,
Butter and Buckwheat, Lard and Flour, Herrings and

Coffee, Dearborn "Wagon and Barouch, whip, shafts, and tongue
complete, Dimity and Crimping Irons, China and Fringe, Lin-
en and Stud-Horse Calico, — stationery, very ! But this small
stealing, which was an every-day practice of President Hous-
ton, is the least of the offence. On this very day, January 24th,
1843, while with one hand he was robbing the impoverished
treasury of Texas, with the other he was signing the death-
warrant of the brave men of "Mier."

The following publication made by myself in reference to
this subject, will speak for itself, and which neither the Sena-
tor or his friends have undertaken since to mystify, until the
appearance of his senate pamphlet.

•
« TO THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS.

" WASHINGTON CITY, Jan. 10th, 1846.

" A friend has just placed in my hands a * Galveston Civilian' of the 13th
ult., containing a letter from Gen. Sam Houston, purporting to be a vindica-
tion of his conduct in reference to the decimation of our countrymen in Mexi-
co. Gen. Houston, in his letter, failing to adduce any evidence of his inno-
cence of this enormous crime, has endeavored to divert public attention from
his guilt, by the grossest, false, and vindictive — I had almost said unparal-
leled slander of myself. In this I would have erred, for it has many parallels
from Gen. Houston himself. His publication of the gallant Commodore
Moore to the world, as an outlaw and pirate, at the identical time that his
cannon were thundering against more than ten times his force, that of our
common enemy — his reiterated slanders against the brave Generals Burleson,
Sherman and Wharton, and almost every other distinguished man in Texas
— his oft repeated ridiculous charges against ex-President Burnet, one of the
purest men in any country — his vile denunciation of Gen. Stephen F. Austin,
the father of his country — his perfidious slander of the spotless wife of his
own bosom — yea, in his general character as an universal calumniator, count-
less parallels might be adduced. Though his charges against myself must
meet that contempt from every honest man which has followed the habitual
falsehoods of his whole life, yet the circumstances in which Gen. Houston and
myself are now placed before the people of Texas, make it proper that I
should appear before the public through the same medium. And I will ask
what other redress is left me ? It is well known that Gen. Houston holds
himself perfectly irresponsible. If personal chastisement be inflicted upon
him, as was done by the Hon. Branch T. Archer and Col. Jordon, he either
pleads sickness or old age. If falsehood is proved upon him, as was done by
Mr. Wingfield, and many others, he pleads drunkenness. II is due to myself

30

then, that I should in this case prove his falsehood, and ' out of his own
mouth will I convict him.'

" Fellow citizens, it has been three long years and over, since the hard-
fought and sanguinary battle of Mier : a few days more will make three years
since that gallant little band of your countrymen was made to draw hi a
black-bean lottery, and each tenth man shot. Such a cold blooded murder
astonished the whole civilized world, and put to the test the wisest politicians
of the most civilized nations, to know what sufficient cause could be assigned
therefor. Could it be that they had fought, under the requirements of their own
government, considering the disparity of forces and the circumstances of the
case, the hardest fought battle in the annals of war ? Could it be, that when
captives, they had, while emaciated and worn down by the fatigues of a long and
wearisome march, risen upon triple their number of armed guards, over-
powered and dispersed them uninjured, and then peaceably pursued their
way homewards ? No ! these actions met the praises, not only of all civilized
nations, but even the highest encomiums of semi-barbarian Mexico. For what,
then, could such a shocking murder have been perpetrated ? Alone, upon the
most authoritative evidence, that they were without the pale of those laws
which govern civilized nations in war. Did that evidence exist ? If so, who
furnished it, and how came it to the knowledge of that government ?

" In this letter, fellow citizens, I must necessarily confine myself to a brief
statement of this matter, and refer every man who wishes to know the whole
history of it, to appendix No. 2, page 450, and appendix No. 6, page 477, of
my work upon Texas and Mexico, in which will be seen stated all the evi-
dence in the case, and such evidence as no man, so far as I have heard, of
the thousands and tens of thousands in this country, who have read it, pre-
tended to doubt. That evidence is — that Sam Houston, the President of
Texas, early in the year 1843, and soon after the battle of Mier, wrote a letter
to Capt. Elliot, Her Britannic Majesty's Charge d' Affairs, residing in Galves-
ton, which he, Houston, requested him, Elliot, to forward to Mexico, and
which he, Elliot, did as he was requested ; in which Houston said, * that
though the Mier prisoners had entered Mexico contrary to law and authority, yet
Tie, Houston, legged mercy for them, &c? It is in evidence, that upon the re-
ceipt of this letter of Presd't Houston, that Santa Anna, the President of
Mexico, ordered the decimation, showing that the President of Texas was
the highest, and sufficient authority for this horrible deed : because, that evi-
dence had proclaimed them brigands and robbers.

" Fellow citizens, these facts came to the knowledge of myself and com-
panions, through the American and English ministers, while we were in the
dungeons of Mexico, very soon after this sad tragedy in March, 1843. After
my escape from the castle of Perote, and in October of the same year, I pub-
lished them in the ' Galveston News,' and notwithstanding President Hous-
ton's then control of the Mails and Post Offices of Texas and the limited cir-
culation of that journal, he, Houston, knowing the truth of these charges, and
feeling a murderer's guilt, commenced his vindication by denying, with up-
lifted eyes, that he ever wrote, or caused to be written, the letter charged to

31

him. (See Lieut. S. H. Walker's statement, page 453.) This was President
Houston's FIRST defence of himself; but upon my receipt and publication of
Gen. Waddy Thompson's and the British Minister's letters from Mexico,
proving the falsity of his denial, he fled to the Presbyterian Church in the
town of Houston, in November of the same year, and made a speech, which
was published in all his newspapers of that day, and in which he said, * it
was not my friend's, Capt. Elliott's letter, that produced the mischief,'1 thereby
implying, that Elliott had written the letter. In said speech, however, he
goes on to charge all the consequences of that murder to a letter which
Gen. M. Hunt had written to, and which was published in the * Houston
Telegraph ' of the 18th of Jan. previously. This is Gen. Houston's SECOND
defence, and thus, up to this hour, so far as I am informed, Gen. Hunt and
the Telegraph stand charged by Gen. Houston with the horrid butchery.
On the 12th of December, which was about one month after his speech was
published in his annual message to Congress, he again changes his ground,
and said, that ' it was a retaliation on account of those under Gen. Somermlle
who robbed Laredo? charging this murder to those who returned from that
place with Col. Bennett. Thus, you see, for the THIRD time, in the short
space of a few months, when pursued by the ghosts of these murdered heroes,
he changes his ground of defence. Now, fellow citizens, after a lapse of
nearly three years, when his control over the public intelligence of Texas is
about to give way to an honest administration of the mails, — when my work
upon Texas and Mexico has gone the length and breadth of this great nation,
and carried conviction to the mind of every man who has read it, that Sam
Houston is the wilful and malicious murderer of his countrymen of Mier, and
just on the eve of the Congressional elections and in my absence from Texas,
he comes out in the ' Civilian' of the 13th of last month, and charges this
crime upon myself, as having been the ' first to incite the men ' to the plun-
der of Laredo. Thus, for the FOURTH time, Gen. Houston, has changed his
defence. But, fellow citizens, falsehood and crime will always convict itself, be-
cause it rarely ever tells one steady tale. Gen. Houston, after changing his de-
fence, as you have seen FOUR different times, comes out in his latest publica-
tion, and for the FIRST time admits that " he wrote the letter to Capt. Elliott."
It cannot be forgotten, in Texas, how often, for the last three years, both
Gen. Houston and his partisans have denied this fact, and it would have been
better for him always to have denied it ; for then many of his blinded friends
would either have believed, or professed to believe, that he never had writ-
ten it.

" Fellow citizens, the vind'ictiveness of Gen. Houston's last defence can
only be equalled by his stupidity. If the plunder of Laredo had been a suf-
ficient cause for the decimation of your countrymen, and I had been the
'first to incite the men to that plunder,' why did not Santa Anna have me
shot ? His personal hostility to myself for the last ten years was well known,
and the slightest pretext would have been sufficient for him to have practised
his bloody vengeance upon my person. If Gen. Houston's charge be correct,
I ask, in the name of common sense, why it was that innocent, unoffending

32

men, were made to pay the penalty of my crime? Why it was that Majors
Cocke and Dunham, Captains Cameron and Eastland, Este, Hams, Jones
and Mahan, Ogden, Roberts, Rowan and Shepard, Thompson, Torry, Trum-
bull, Wing, and the * iron nerved ' Whaling, were made to pay the penalty of
my wrong-doing ? This charge, like a badly counterfeited dollar, carries its
own condemnation upon its face, and I should not have deemed it worthy of
notice but to show the recklessness of one who scruples at no falsehood to
serve his ambition and hatred.

" Fellow citizens, what Gen. Houston asserts in his letter, about promptly
furnishing the Mier prisoners in Mexico with the supplies which Congress had
voted them, is as untrue as the balance of his letter, and I will take the jour-
nals of Congress and his own letter to prove it. The facts are these : — Early
in December, 1843, and soon after the meeting of Congress, the destitution
of our countrymen in Mexico was pressed upon the attention of Congress by
myself, the Hon. Wm. E. Jones, S. H. Maverick, and others, who had tasted
some of the sweets of a Mexican prison. To the honor of that Congress, be
it known, no time was lost in voting $15,000 for their relief, under the re-
quirement that it should be forthwith furnished them. It was then deemed
best by the Congress, for the good of our countrymen in prison, that this
law should not be made public at the time. About two months after, and at
nearly the close of the session, the Secretary of the Treasury was called
upon by myself and others, to know what had been done in carrying out this
law. To our surprise and mortification we were informed that not a dollar
had been sent them, and no measures taken to send them one. We saw then,
full well, that President Houston would cloak his vindictive dereliction of duty
under a law then not designed to be made public; and just before the close
of the Congress another law was passed, in open session, appropriating an
additional $15,000. This law was passed without the repeal of the former,
and thus the Congress, under full consideration for the eminent services of
these men, voted $30,000 to their relief. We come now to the question, how
much of this money was sent these men, and when it was sent to them ?
Gen. Houston tells you in his letter, that on the 19th of October, 1844, one
draft was drawn for $3,740. Mark the time — this is ten months and a half
from the passage of the law. But he says that he sent Mr. Potter as a spe-
cial agent (Mr. Hargous refusing to act as such), with $2,500. Now I ask
the question of every Mier man, did they ever receive one dollar of this ap-
propriation while in prison? No ! On the 16th of September, the survivors
were turned loose at the gates of Perote, like so many cattle, with the excep-
tion that the * magnanimous Mexican nation ' gave each man one silver dollar
to bear his expenses to Texas. With that silver dollar they started home,
and at Jalapa, for the first time, they were furnished, through Mr. Hargous,
$2,000. These are the historical facts of the case, proved by the acts of
Congress, now upon your statute book, the assertion of every Texian then in
Perote, and the confessions of Gen. Houston's own letter. Was there any
possible excuse for this cruel delay, even had Mr. Hargous refused to act as
our agent ? Was Mr. Hargous the only man in Mexico through whom money

33

could be transmitted? Or was it at all necessary that we should have an
agent? I say not! and Gen. Houston knew full well, that in one week from
the passage of that act, he could have placed the money in some responsible
house or bank in New Orleans, and, with a certificate of deposit and author-
ity sent to Gen. Fisher, or Quarter-Master Fenton M. Gibson, or any other
officer in the Castle of Perote, to draw for the same, could have been cashed
in one hour at that place, at a premium of six per cent. Thus, with this
small paper, which could have been sent to them in twenty days from the
passage of the act, every $100 on deposit in New Orleans would have been
worth to them, in their cheerless and destitute prison, $106!

" But, fellow-citizens, in these long ten months of withholding the bread
of your dying countrymen, did President Houston hear no complaints'from
them ? Yes ! not a sail that crossed the Gulf which did not bring from the
miserable cells of Perote the lamentations of the sick and dying ; and the
bones of eighty-odd noble souls, now scattered from the bottom of the great
ditch of Perote, to nearly every prison-yard in Mexico, are evidence of 'Presi-
dent Houston's friendship for the Mier men.'1 Did President Houston hear no
other complaints from the Mier men ? Yes, indeed, be it told to their eternal
honor ! though it has been well said that starvation for the want of food is
the greatest subduer of the physical man, yet, when these noble countrymen
of ours heard that President Houston had his commissioners across the Rio
Grande, signing their country away as the ' DEPARTMENT OP TEXAS,' though
they were at that time living skeletons, and daily depositing some of their
comrades in that horrible ditch, they nobly wrote home, which should be
written in letters of gold and engraven upon every patriot's heart, * Let no
consideration of us forfeit your country's honor: let us rot in these dungeons ere
you concede one inch to these colored barbarians.''

" All this is only equaled by one thing in the conclusion of Gen. Houston's
letter, which I must think caps the climax of every assertion and assumption
of his whole life, to wit : — that ' 1 lie day will come when it will le shown that
he obtained the release of the Mier prisoners.1 This beats * Coquetting ' about
Annexation so far that I cannot well conceive how his most devoted followers
can read it with becoming gravity. * The day will come.' Was there ever
so propitious a day for Gen. Houston to prove that thing as now, when the
separate nationality of Texas is merged in this great confederacy, and when
he is staking every thing for a seat in that dignified branch of the Congress
of this Union, which, should he succeed, it cannot fail to experience the dis-
grace of that success.

" Fellow-citizens, so much for Gen. Houston and the Mier men ; and, in
conclusion, I must crave your further attention to that part of his letter per-
sonal to myself. Gen. Houston says, that in the sacking of Laredo, I was
'the first man who broke open a house and incited the men to outrage.' I
know not what milder epithet to give to this charge, than to say it is
maliciously, infamously false. It is known by the whole army, that on the
day of the sacking of Laredo, I did not leave the camp, which was three
miles below the town, and that when those that had participated in the sack-

3

34

ing, returned to the camp, I was among the most active in getting them to
return the articles to Gen. Somerville's quarters, to be re-delivered to the
alcalde, and the well known fact that every Mier man, with many others, did
so return them, relieves them from Gen. Houston^ charge of crime, if crime it
was. That some who returned from Laredo with Col. Bennett did not return
the articles taken from the town is also well known. These men are known
to be Gen. Houston's warmest friends, and they must settle with him this
high charge of robbery which he brings against them. I will, however, de-
fend these friends of Gen. Houston against his wholesale denunciations.

" On the 8th of December, 1842, General Somerville's forces arrived at the
town of Laredo, after seventeen days' march from their camp upon the Me-
dina ; having exhausted the whole of more than three hundred beeves which
they started with from the San Antonio, General Somerville made a requisition
for eight or ten beeves, which was barely rations for one day, and then took
the backward track for home. The men had been promised supplies upon
the Rio Grande, and now found that promise neglected. They had, by every
law of war and nature, a right to be fed ; and if the General did not do it,
through his commissariat, they were reduced to the alternative of doing so of
their own accord, though with becoming patience they awaited a whole
day for the General to comply with his promise, and did not attempt to sup-
ply themselves until he had made a retrograde march of three miles home-
wards. That these men took articles useless and unbecoming soldiers, was
more the fault of their General, in not telling them what was lawful to take,
than in their not knowing what was so lawful by the usages of war. Now,
I will ask, did President Houston inform these men what was proper by the
laws of war to take, when in his address to the people of Texas, in July, 1842,
he called upon them to * to pursue the enemy into his own country, and chastise
him for his insolence and wrongs? No ! These are his identical instructions,
published in all the newspapers of the day. ' The Government (says Presi-
dent Houston) will promise nothing hut authority to march, and such supplies
of ammunition as may ~be needful for the campaign. They must look to the valley
of the Rio Grande for remuneration — 2 he Government mil claim no portion of
the spoils ; they will ~be divided among the victors. The flag of Texas will
accompany the expedition.1 Thus much for President Houston's calumny of
the sacking of Laredo ; and while the Texian army has been in the invariable
habit, during our revolution, of quartering upon our own citizens while in the
field, he would have them starve while in an enemy's country, though called
there by his own proclamation.

" Fellow citizens, the manner in which General Houston has lugged Mr.
Hargous into his letter, shows a vindicative hatred of that gentleman, which
he (Houston) has manifested in several of his veto messages on those laws of
your Congress which provided to pay him the money he furnished our
countrymen of the Santa Fe Expedition, while in Mexico. "Wherefore, I ask,
has General Houston thus formally brought Mr. Hargous before his govern-
ment ? — There can be but one answer. — It is the same manifestation of his
murderous intent which caused him to write to Santa Anna, that the " Mier

35

men had gone into Mexico without authority of lew ;" and while I trust that the
fatal consequences of his Mier letter may not befall this excellent gentleman,
it is due, both to him and myself, to state the particulars of a transaction for
which President Houston, in January, 1844, received the unanimous rebuke
of the House of Representatives of Texas.

" The facts are these, fellow citizens : — In June, 1843, while in the castle
of Perote, I received, as was known to all my companions, several letters from
my brother, Colonel C. P. Green, of N. C., saying, that in July he would come
to Mexico, to see how he could best serve me. On the 2nd of that month,
not content to await the arrival of my brother, I escaped from prison, with
fifteen of my countrymen. After weeks of suffering in the mountains, myself,
Captain C. K. Reese, and Interpreter Dan Drake Henrie, of Brazoria
county, Rd. Barclay, and R. Cornegay, of Fayette county, and John For-
rester, of the town of Houston, met in disguise in the city of Vera Cruz*
Captain Reese had been provided with some means through his father's fac-
tor in New Orleans, and Mr. Hargous furnished me with $130, and I became
responsible for the balance of the passages of my comrades on board the
steamer Petrita, to New Orleans, which, in all, amounted to $280. I dis-
tinctly told Mr. Hargous that it was more than probable I would meet my
brother in New Orleans, and in expectation of which, I would draw for the
$280 upon him ; but at the same time, I would draw a duplicate draft upon
the Government of Texas, that for a like purpose General McLeod and Col-
onel Cooke had drawn the year previously in his favor, for the Santa Fe pris-
oners, for several thousand dollars ; that I was satisfied that General Houston
would neither pay the one or the other, for he never was known to pay his
own debts voluntarily, and rarely under any circumstances, but that the
Texas Congress would. When we sailed on the Petrita, John Forester pre-
ferred to work his passage as fireman, thereby reducing my indebtedness to
Mr. Hargous to $255. On my arrival at New Orleans, I had sufficient money
to pay for the use of a bed, and a drink of grog each. The next day, through
the kindness of my friends, Col. W. M. Beal and Charles Duroche, I was
enabled to furnish some of them still farther. In a few days after, we sailed
for Texas, I becoming individually responsible for passages of four to Captain
Ferguson. Upon my arrival in New Orleans, instead of meeting my brother,
as I expected, I received the melancholy intelligence that he was upon his
death-bed, and from which he never arose. This fact was known to the
supercargo of Mr. Hargous, in Orleans, and at my request he sent the
duplicate draft to the Government of Texas, which he accompanied with some
stupid complaints of my brother not meeting him in Orleans. At this
time I was a member of Congress, and had exposed Houston's murder of our
decimated Mier men, and all other of his mal-practices coming under my knowl-
edge, with that unreserve well known to you all. Upon the receipt of this draft
for $280, expended upon our suffering countrymen, President Houston laid
it before the House of Representatives, in a special message, with reflections
against myself. Upon the presentation of which, the House unanimously
.refused to receive his message, and ordered the Clerk forthwith to return it

36

to him : thus rebuking him in a manner never known before or since in the
history of the Texian Congress. Did the Congress stop here ? No ! the draft
for the $280 was incorporated in Mr. Hargous' Santa Fe outlay, without one
dissenting vote ; and if that gentleman has not yet received his whole dues, it
has been on account of the constant hostility of Presidents Houston and Jones,
which their veto messages will prove. — For these facts I refer to the journals
of Congress and the Hon. Wm. E. Jones, who was chairman on the Commit-
tee, as well as to every member of the House of Representatives, and chal-
lenge their denial.

THOMAS J. GREEN.

Thus it will be seen that the senator has for the first time
admitted that he wrote the fatal letter ; but in this he again
attempts to charge the consequence of that murderous " black
bean lottery," first, to the sacking of Laredo by his own
friends and neighbors ; next, to Gen. Hunt's letter of the 18th
of January, 1843 ; and, last, to the rising of our prisoners upon
their guards. For a more full understanding of the truthful-
ness of his assertions, I herewith append the certificate of Capt.
Samuel G. Norvell, than whom a braver soldier or better
patriot was never in the Texas army. Before doing so, let me
call attention to this military pretender's idea of an " armistice."
He says, " They had violated the armistice granted to them,
and for that, and nothing else, they were punished." Now
there never was an armistice granted them / and if there had
been, it would necessarily have expired upon the signing of
the articles of capitulation. That men loaded with irons,
driven and herded like cattle, could violate a parole, by strik-
ing for their liberty against three times their number of armed
guards, is something new in the science of war ; and I should
like to know in what book this " COMMANDEE-IN- CHIEF " found
such law. The only parole ever granted to a " Mier prisoner,"
was to Gen. Fisher and myself, by Col. Savriego, on our march
from Matamoras to Monterey. This parole we could have
easily broken, and gained our liberty thereby ; but I am sure
that either of us would have preferred death. I knew that I
was being carried to an implacable enemy, Santa Anna, and
my friends believed that my life would be the forfeit. But to-
Capt. Norvell's certificate.

37 -

"AUSTIN, TEXAS,

"Oct. 29th, 1854.
•"To Gen'l Thomas J. Green,

"Dear Sir:—

" Having read Senator Sam Houston's late attack upon you in the United
States Senate, in which he denounces as untrue your . work upon the ' Mier
Expedition,' and endeavors to exculpate himself by charging Gen. Memucan
Hunt as the cause of the decimation of the 'Mier Prisoners,' and the murder
of the brave Capt. Ewin Cameron ; and having carefully examined all the
evidences in this matter, from page 450 to 461, in your work, all of which I
know to be true, I feel it due to yourself and the public to make this further
unsolicited statement, to which at any time I am ready to testify.

"I, as one of the sixty-seven 'Bexar prisoners of war,' who surrendered
to Gen. Adrian Woll, of the Mexican army, in September, 1842, at the city
of San Antonio, was marched, with my comrades, through Mexico as far
as the city of Queretero, where I was left sick. Through the intercession of
friends, upon my recovery I was released, and proceeded to the city of Mexico,
where, for the first time, I heard of the capture of the * Mier Prisoners,' their
decimation, and the shooting of Capt. Cameron. I went immediately to
Gen. Waddy Thompson, the American Minister, to know more of this mel-
ancholy news. He told me that it was too true, and that President Sam
Houston's letter, written through the British legation, at Galveston, to Mexico,
was the cause of it. I replied that it was impossible that the President of
Texas could have written such a letter. He answered, go to the British min-
ister and see for yourself. I went immediately to see Mr. Packenham, the
British Minister, and upon my announcing myself as one of the released
Texian prisoners, he inquired, Did you know Captain Cameron, and was he
the bloody robber he is represented to be ? I answered that I knew Captain
Cameron well ; had served in the army with him, and that a purer gentleman
and better patriot and soldier never fought for his country. Upon this the
tears trickled down the cheeks of that gentleman, and he said, I fear the
worst has not come for your unfortunate countrymen. This letter, by the
authority of your President, has done all the mischief, and President Santa
Anna claims the full privilege, under it, of shooting the whole of your men.
I read particularly this letter, which you refer to in your book, and which
your correspondence with the American and British ministers show that it
was on file at that time. As for General Hunt's having written a letter to a
Texas newspaper, I can say that neither myself or any one with whom I
conversed with in Mexico ever heard of it. I will add, that both Gen.
Thompson and Mr. Packenham promised to use their best endeavors to pre-
vent the farther slaughter of our men, and the sequel shows with what good
success. That they deserve the lasting gratitude of all true-hearted Texians,
no honest man will doubt.

" Very respectfully, your ob't serv't,

"S. G. NORVELL."

.. 38

The following resolution, offered by myself, in Congress,.
Dec. 22d, 1843, page 66, Journal House of Representatives,
will show that they were not forgotten, as it passed unan-
imously :

" Mr. Green, from the Select Committee to whom was referred sundry
papers concerning our own prisoners of war, in Mexico, offered the following
resolution, to wit : —

" Resolved, That the gratitude of this nation is due to the Hon. Waddy
Thompson, United States Minister in Mexico, and her Majesty's Charge d*
Affairs, the Hon. Percy TV. Doyle, and also her Britannic Majesty's late Minis-
ter, Mr. Packenham, for their active interference in behalf of our fellow-
countrymen, while prisoners of war in Mexico ; and that the thanks of this
House be unanimously tendered them therefor, and that they be furnished
with copies of this resolution."

The Senator has devoted a large portion of his pamphlet
speech to disprove what I have charged upon him, to wit : that
he was the malicious cause of the murder of the "decimated
Mier men." In his speech, he says,

" I could appeal to an honorable gentleman from Texas, now present in
this chamber (General Memucan Hunt). The capture took place on the 26th
of December. On the 18th of January following, General Hunt, who had
been out in the campaign, who had marched as a private soldier under Gene-
ral Somerville, who had won the admiration of the whole army by his soldier-
like, manly, and chivalrous conduct, wrote an account as to the scenes at
Mier, in which he bore testimony to all that I have said. He came to Hous-
ton, in Texas, and published to the world the facts connected with the Mier
expedition ; he showed that it had gone unauthorizedly ; he did not condemn
it, but merely gave the historical facts. That was on the 18th of January, so
that by the end of the month the news would be in the pdsses'si6n of Santa
Anna ; and yet he suspended all vengeance until March afterwards, and until
the rising of the prisoners upon the guard. What, then, was the use of the
President of Texas saying it was against law? Was it not known by
General Hunt's letter (in which he detailed the facts), that Colonel Fisher,
Green, and others, had deserted from the command of Gen. Somerville, when
ordered to the interior of Texas, had united to maraud upon Mexico, had
crossed the Rio Grande without authority of law, and in open violation of or-
ders, had taken possession of Mier, and that a battle ensued."

I will prove by the letters of Capt. Norvell, Col. Fisher,
and the American and British ministers, that Gen. Hunt's letter
to a Texas newspaper had nothing to do with this most hellish
murder. Col. Fisher and his brother officers, writing from the

39

Castle of Perot e, on the 26th day of July, 1844, one year and
a half after the date of Gen. Hunt's letter, says, — " I have re-
ceived the paper containing Gen. Hunt's letter ', and I can see in
it nothing to give the slightest foundation for the charge of
Sam Houston."

The Senator here makes General Hunt accuse the " Mier
men" of uniting to " maraud upon Mexico, and that they had
crossed the Rio Grande without authority of law" Gen. Hunt
having permitted this speech to go forth to the world and
widely circulated, I am to presume that it has his sanction, or
he would have corrected it months ago. On two previous
occasions, both in 1844 and '46, I defended Gen. Hunt before
the public, from this charge, which Houston had made against
him, of being the cause of the " decimation of the Mier Men"
Gen. Hunt himself denounced Houston in severe, though just
terms, for this charge. The facts are these : that so far from
crossing the Rio Grande in violation of law and orders, Presi-
dent Houston, on the 27th of January, 1844 — page 376 of the
Journals of the House of Representatives — forgetting his fre-
quent denials upon this subject, in a veto message says, "In
an address to the people of Texas, dated July, 1842, and pub-
lished in the newspapers of the day, the Executive remarked,
in reference to the contemplated expedition, that < the Govern-
ment will promise nothing but authority to march, and such
supplies of ammunition as may be useful for the campaign .They
must look to the valley -of the Rio Grande for remuneration.
The Government will claim no portion of the spoils — they will
be divided among the victors. The flag of Texas will accom-
pany the expedition." Again, in the same message, he
reiterates, " he plainly told them they must look' for remuner-
ation to the valley of the Rio Grande? " It will be recollected
that these proclamations from President Houston were numerous,
and under which we assembled to defend western Texas. Gen.
Hunt knew these facts. ' He also knew that, by the law of
1840, volunteers had the right to elect their own commanders.
My work upon this expedition shows that General Somerville
had marched a competent force to Laredo (not as the Senator
falsely says in his speech), " MANY miles on the east side of the
Rio Grande" but immediately upon the east bank of said river,

40

is the town of Laredo. General Somerville here got sight of
the enemy, and commenced a homeward retreat. In this re-
treat he was arrested by the unanimous voice of the army,
after he had proceeded several miles. He then said that the
army could elect a commander ; that he would be among those
who would "*lleach his bones upon the plains of Mexico." The
army then re-elected him under this pledge. He moved down
the east bank of the river, until he reached a point opposite
Guerrero, and crossed. Here he again got a view of the enemy,
and then falsified his word by a precipitate retreat homewards.
This is a fact well recollected, that when he recrossed the river
homewards, there was no man more loud against this cowardly
movement than Gen. Hunt ; — and on that very night the army
was stimulated to elect a new commander by Gen. Hunt, which
they had a right lawfully to do, and which they did do. Gen.
Hunt was a candidate for the command, and made as many
promises of " bone bleaching " as any of us ; but he was not
elected. Next morning the General was among the first to
saddle his horse for home ; he then found out it was necessary
to obey the defunct Gen. Somerville's orders. Instead of Gen.
Hunt being where the Senator places him, in the situation of
giving a " correct account of the scenes of Mier" he was fol-
lowing his home-sick leader through bog and chapparal, within
hearing of our cannons' thunder. His friend and messmate,
Capt. Bartlett Sims, informed me, that such was their destitu-
tion, they had to stew up raw hides, of which their packs were
made, to subsist upon. Under these circumstances, let every
sensible and impartial reader say, who were the deserters ! Was
it General Somerville and his two hundred followers who ran
home from the sight of the enemy ; or was it the three hundred
and twenty -four men who agreed to stand their ground and
fight ? In my knowledge and reading of war, the " Mier men"
are the first to desert from a run-away general, by standing
their ground andjfighting an overwhelming enemy.

It is passing strange that General Hunt should have per-
mitted himself to be thus abused by the Senator. A few weeks
after the delivery of this speech, while on my return from
Texas, I met Gen. Hunt upon a railroad in North Carolina,
and he, for the first time, told me that, " the damned old

41

villain, Sam Houston, had the audacity to allude to him. in his
speech against you. You know that I have not spoken to him
for six years, and that I have denounced him as severely as
ever you did. Demolish him ; I~know you have the evidence to
do it" This was Gen. Hunt's opinion of the Senator in August
last, soon after his speech was delivered against myself.

The following extract from General Memucan Hunt's letter
to General Sam Houston, dated October 30th, 1849, and pub-
lished in the " Texas State Gazette," of November 10th, page
91, will show what General Hunt's opinion of the Senator was
at that date : —

" Your overbounding ambition, added to your jealousy and selfishness ,
has so uniformly prompted you in this propensity, that you are notorious in
Texas as having reviled, traduced, and calumniated, or threatened, as in your
judgment you thought most politic, the character of almost every man who
has obtained any favorable reputation for himself and his country, either in
connection with its revolt, the acquisition of its independence from Mexico, or
subsequent annexation as a state of the United States. To prevent the least
misapprehension of the justness of my assertions, I will, with your leave, make
the following applications and references, namely : Have you not hushed your
insidious attacks, either of ridicule, slander, or threats, or all of them, by
making assertions to those who were your menials, and whom you knew
would repeat the same after you (and make it more public and effective for
your purpose than if published in newspapers), or by messages in a similar
manner, as you recently sent openly and publicly to me by Major Neighbours,
traducing them for the purpose of destroying their usefulness and in-
fluence, as you have done of Col. Austin, the father of Texas; Governor
Smith, Provisional Governor in 1835 ; Ex-President Burnet, and Lorenzo de
Zavalla, Vice President, ad interim, of Texas; Ex-President Lamar; Ex-
President Jones ; the late venerable Richard Ellis, President of the Conven-
tion which formed the Constitution of the late republic of Texas ; the late
William and John Wharton ; the late gallant Travis, and Fannin, and Crock-
et, and Brenham, and Walker, Genl. Burleson, Col. Frank Johnson, Col.
Sherman, Dr. Branch T. Archer, Gen. A. Sydney Johnson, late Sterling C.
Robertson, Judge Megison, Leonard Groce, Col. Henry Jones, Col. Morgan,
late Bailey Wardaman, Gov. Wood, Col. Bell, Governor elect ; Ex-Lieutenant
Governor Horton, Dr. Levi Jones, late Gen. Wm. S. Fisher, late J. T. Van
Zanett, late S. Rhodes Fisher, Gen. Tom Green of Fayette, Judge Webb, Ex-
Governor Henderson, George W. Smyth, Commissioner of the General Land
Office; Col. Caldwell, Judge Richard Scurry, Col. Barnard E. Bee, Gen.
James Hamilton, A. T. Burney, late Richard Morris, Gen. Cazineau, Gen.
Chambers, Gen. Thomas Jeff Green, Col. Latimer, Judge Franklin, Gen. Por-
tis, late Dr. Tom Anderson, Commodore Moore, late Judge Jack Todd Robin-

42

son, Judge Ochiltree, Judge W. E. Jones, late Col. Wm. G.- Cpoke, late Col.
James R. Cooke, Col. Samuel M. Williams, Judge W. Munifer, late Richard
Dunlap, late Richard Bullock, Gen. Felix Huston, late Major Ben. Fort
Smith, late Josiah Bell, Judge John B. Jones, Gen. McLeod, Dr. Gideon
Williams, Col. Ira R. Lewis, Col. Robert Williams, Robert Mills, Major Mont-
gomery, Judge Mills, Judge Robert Williamson, Ex-Governor Runnels, Col. Oli-
ver Jones, Dr. Francis Moore, jun. Indeed, General, who is there that you have
spared? Do not, however, understand me as being the defender of all the
acts of all these gentlemen ; but I will venture the assertion that there is not
one of them whose character in private or public life, or either, or both, as the
case may be, would not bear a fair and advantageous comparison, now, if
living, and, at their death, if they are no more, with your own. There is no
one, indeed, in public life, who has dared to oppose your mandates, or even
express a difference of opinion to yours ; nor is there any in private life, pos-
sessing influence, who opposed your will and wishes, but have been, more or
less, your victims, in the manner above referred to. It is, sir, proverbial in
Texas, that the lowest compliment that can be bestowed on an old public offi-
cer, or an influential gentleman in private life, in Texas, is, that General Sam
Houston has never denounced him in a manner before named."

If I recollect rightly, this was not only Gen. Hunt's opinion
of the Senator in 1849, but with every change of season since
the commencement of the Texas Revolution to the present
time, his denunciation has been as strong, or his friendship
oppositely warm. I do not envy the amiability of General
Hunt, and confess that my nature is of sterner stuff. My
friendship was far beyond the reach of President Houston's
official bribery. I have uniformly, and on all occasions, op-
posed his corruptions and denounced his villanies.

I recollect last winter, when General Hunt was a Member
of the Legislature from Galveston, he had with him the orphan
son of the late gallant Colonel "William R. Cook, who he pub-
licly and repeatedly charged President Houston of having had
assassinated. In this belief, however, General Huut is far from
being alone. .

The Senator's charge of my " having filched a good deal of
money out of benevolent individuals, while a prisoner of war
in Mexico," is as unmitigated a slander as could have been
invented by his black heart. I had money frequently offered
me in Mexico, but never accepted a dollar, except from three
individuals, to wit — J. P. Schatzell, of Matamoras ; S. L. Har-
gous ; and Governor F. M. Dimond, (now of Rhode Island,)

43

-but then United States Consul at Vera Cruz. The circum-
stances of my receiving aid from these excellent gentlemen, are
•these : After the capitulation of Mier, we were marched via
Matamoras to the city of Mexico and Perote* Upon reaching
Matamoras, Mr. J. P. Schatzell. a wealthy and benevolent
merchant, and an old friend of the Hon. J. J. Crittenden, with
the permission of General Ampudia, furnished Lieutenant, now
Major George Crittenden of the Kifles, with means. Mr.
Schatzell also insisted that I should take from him a sufficient
amount to carry myself and rother officers through our long
tirid tedious journey. I accepted only four hundred dollars, for
which I receipted, he insisting upon my taking a much larger
sum, and was perfectly willing to await the result of Texas
success for his pay. Before, however, leaving Matamoras, he
placed in my hands an unlimited letter of credit, to draw upon
him if we required a further amount; Upon reaching Monterey,
'I called upon his correspondent, and received three hundred
.dollars, making in the aggregate seven hundred dollars, every
•cent of which was expended in common for myself and com-
rades on our long march of more than two thousand miles to
the Castle of Perote. The Congress of Texas, in 1844, not only
recognized this debt of Mr. Schatzell, but on the last day of the
session — page 470 of the Journal of the House of Representa-
tives— upon my motion, the House unanimously passed the
following resolution : —

" Mr. Green^ ly leave, introduced the following resolution :
" Be it resolved, ~by the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in
'Congress assembled, That the thanks of this house be tendered to J. P. Schat-
zell, Esq., of Matamoras, for the uniform kindness and liberality extended by
"him to our unfortunate fellow citizens, while prisoners in Mexico."

.-. The next money I " borrowed " in Mexico was from our
avhole-souled American citizen Mr. L. S. Hargous, then of Yera
.Cruz, whose heart' is as large as his purse. It was under these
circumstances : I was a prisoner heavily ironed in the Castle of
Perote, and nearly starved, as were my comrades, through the
neglect and baseness of President Houston. Mr. Hargous
I had never seen, and he sent me one hundred dollars ; my
journal will show how this sum was nsed. After my escape

4:4:

from the Castle, I reached Yera Cruz with five of my com-
rades who had escaped the pursuit of Santa Anna's guards.
Mr. Hargous gave me thirty dollars more, and an order for
myself and companions to go to the United States on board of
his steamer Petrita — so that amount of money and passages
made the sum of $280, which I drew upon Texas for, in favor
of Mr. Hargous, which amount was promptly acknowledged
by the Texas Congress and incorporated with the amount of
$8,000, which this gentleman had the year previous advanced
to Generals McCleod and Cook for the Santa Fe prisoners. —
My publication of the 10th January, 1846, above copied, fully
explains this transaction, and page 399 of the Journals of the
House of Representatives shows the truth of my statement —
that though it was an administration Congress I denounced
President Houston from my place in the house, .as a " Hack-
Jiearted murderer and villain /" yet that house unani-
mously sustained me by having the papers forthwith returned
to the President. I subsequently visited the city of Mexico,
in 1849, and enjoyed the open hospitality of Mr. Hargous, who
thanked me in the warmest manner for my active services in
the Texas Congress in procuring the law for his payment. In
this connection I will relate an incident which that excellent
gentleman told me at that time. It is this. Upon the arrival
of the steamer of Mr. Hargous in Orleans, some imprudent
one of my comrades let it be known to the papers that we had
escaped out of Mexico on board said steamer. The conse-
quence was, that upon the return of the steamer to Yera Cruz,
she was seized by order of President Santa Anna, and Mr.
Hargous went in person to the President to procure her resto-
ration. The President put Mr. H. upon his honor as a gentle-
man, to say whether he knew of my being on board of his
steamer when she left port. Mr. H. answered promptly in the
affirmative, and asked the President if their positions were
reversed, would he have done likewise for his countrymen.
Santa Anna said he would, and forthwith ordered the release
of the steamer. This transaction, so honorable in Mr. Hargous
as a true American, is not less noble in the President of
Mexico.

I come now to the third and last person who I " filched,"

money of, in the language of the senator, while in Mexico. It
was Governor F. M. Dimond, of Rhode Island, then the United
States Consul at Yera Cruz — a better man or truer American
never held office under his government. The following cor-
respondence between Governor Dimond and myself will ex-
plain this transaction.

" NEW YOKK,
"January 24th, 1855.

" DEAR SIR — At the last session of Congress I was charged by a speech in
the United States Senate, of borrowing money by false representations, while
a prisoner of war in Mexico. The only three persons I ever borrowed money
of while a prisoner, were J. P. Schatzell, of Matamoras, yourself, and L. S,
Hargous, of Vera Cruz.

" I request you to state the circumstances of our transaction.
" Very respectfully,

" Your obedient servant,

" THOS. J. GREEN.
" To Governor F. M. DIMOND,

" Bristol, Rhode Island."

" BRISTOL, R. I.,
" January 29, 1855.

" DEAR GENERAL — I received yours of the 24th instant, requesting me to
state to you the circumstances under which you borrowed money from me.
I cheerfully comply with your request by stating the facts as I recollect them.

" I was U. S. Consul at Vera Cruz, in 1843. In the month of July, I think,
of that year, I heard of your miraculous escape, with fifteen others of your
comrades, from the strong (and by Mexicans considered impregnable), castle
of Perote. Some weeks after, yourself, Capt. Dan Drake Henrie, Capt. C. K.
Reese, and several others of your escaped comrades, notified me of your
whereabout* in Vera Cruz ; after night-fall I visited your gloomy and horrid
abode ; to have done so in open day, would have been destruction to you and
certain ruin to myself. I knew you only from character and that you were
my countryman in danger and distress, and when you visited my office under
the cover of night, I offered you all the aid in my power ; you availed your-
self of my offer, (I thought too modestly for your necessities), observing that
you all could go to New Orleans in the steamer of a friend, on credit. I fur-
ther state, and do so with great pleasure, that you paid it back to me the first
opportunity, after your return to the United States, and that you were the
wry first of the numerous Texan prisoners to whom I loaned money, who paid
back the demand.

" With great respect,

" I am your friend,

"F. M. DIMOND.
" General THOM. J. GREEN,

" New York.

46

True, it would have been destruction to myself ; for there
was a price upon my head. I had committed the heinous
offence, when my parole was refused, in violation of the usages
of civilized warfare, of throwing off my irons, and, with a por-
tion of my comrades, performing an escape (in the opinion of
the greatest military captain of this age, Gen. Winfield Scott)
" more difficult than that of Baron Trenck." It is the opinion
of such men in military matters as Generals Scott and Worth,
that a soldier estimates above price ; and while this military
buffoon, this '''''bleating cub" Gen. Houston, has the low mean-
ness to disparage the battle of Mier, these great leaders pro-
nounce it one of the most extraordinary in the annals of war.
Gen. Scott said that " I recollect of no such battle ; that, Con-
sidering all things, the advantage of the enemy in position, his
superior force of 3,000 to 260, the nineteen consecutive hours
during which the battle raged, the execution done upon each
side (their official reported loss 730, and known to be greater),
to 11 killed and 23 wounded, astonishes me, and does immor-
tal honor to your Spartan band."

But to return to Governor Dimond. How can I sufficient-
ly express the gratitude of Texas, or my own admiration of his
noble conduct. Upon my arrival in Yera Cruz, incog., he
came every night to see me with the consolations of his repub-
lican countenance, and the full freedom of his purse. Such
officers do honor to their country, and deserve the gratitude
of every lover of liberty. Nor was Texas forgetful of his many
kindnesses to her suffering countrymen while prisoners. Her
resolutions of thanks, and the compliment of a league and
labor of land, show how his services were estimated.

"What the senator says of my vote for Congress in 1846 is
new to me. If I received forty-three votes for Congress, they
were forty-three more than I desired to receive. My name
was before the people of Texas for a time ; but, finding that I
could not return to the State, it had been withdrawn by niy-
self long before the election. I find in page 31, Journals of
the House of Representatives, 1st Congress, that the scattering
vote for President in 1836 was, for T. J. Green, 42 ; T. J. Rusk,
1 ; and B. T. Archer, 4. These votes were cast for me with-
out my knowledge or desire, and is what the senator may al-
lude to.

4:7

The senator refers in complimentary terms to the late
General Fisher. The following extract from a letter to my-
self, written from the Castle of Perote, will show Gen. F.s'
opinion of the senator. He entertained this opinion, from the
battle of San Jacinto until his death.

" CASTLE OF PEROTE,

" July 26th, 1844.

"DEAR GENERAL — Your very estimable favor of the 15th day of June last,
was received yesterday, for which receive my thanks ; it is the second, I be-
lieve, that I have received from you since your escape. For your indefatiga
ble exertions in our cause, every man of us feels properly grateful. Although
unsuccessful in procuring us the benefits of the appropriation of Congress, it
has been occasioned by no neglect of yours, and we know whom to hold re-
sponsible. Our condition is bad enough, * God knows,' but still we have
manly pride sufficient to bear it, and not to trouble the ungrate^il * govern-
ment and people of Texas ' with our sufferings and repinings, caused by too
much loyalty and fidelity to her honor and true interests. Sam Houston and
his administration cannot bear all the sins of Texas, deeply died as Tie may 1e in
villainy ; for I consider him less base than that portion of the population who
passively tolerate his outrageous acts, and still better than those who approve

his course Capt. Ryan sends his respects and requests

you to write him. All hands join me in respects.
" I remain your friend and

u Obedient servant,

WILLIAM S. FISHER.

General Fisher is now no more ; but before his death he
stated, in an address to the public, that " every fact set forth
in my work, the ' Mier Expedition? WAS TKUE.". He objected
only to some deductions bearing upon his advocacy of the sur-
render of Mier. Whilst I believe that I did General Fisher
justice in that work, it is with pleasure I defend his memory
now against the slanders of the Senator. General Fisher was
the first captain at San Jacinto to charge the enemy's works.
Here he witnessed the dastardly cowardice of this squalling
peacock, General-in-Chief Sam Houston, which he then de-
nounced, while he praised the gallantry of Rusk, Wharton,
Lamar, Sherman, Burlison, and others ; since which time he
has been one of the few with honesty and boldness enough to
denounce Houston's many crimes and filthy vices. Such virtue
in Fisher he (Houston) could no more forgive, than he could
change his own corrupt nature. He therefore charges upon

48

Fisher and myself that the " Mier expedition was organized to
maraud ivpon and plunder Mexico" He, however, in the next
breath, falsifies his accusation, by showing that we did take and
hold undisputed possession of Mier, the richest town upon the
Hio Grande, two clays previous to the battle, and not a copper's
worth of private property was taken by any one of our com-
mand. "What the Senator says of my participation in the
sacking of Laredo, he knew to be a dirty lie when he gave
utterance to it. It was shown, that when he made this charge
in 1845, it was one of those slanders which the meanest of his
partizans did not credit. It was shown that I was not in Laredo
during that day, but was at the camp of General Somerville,
several miles east of the town, and that mainly it was through
the influence and energy of Fisher and myself that most of the
articles were returned to General Somerville's head-quarters,
to be returned to the owners. If any articles were carried into
Texas, it was by those friends and neighbors of President
Houston who returned with Colonel Bennett from that camp.
That any one of the Mier men ever did take a pin's worth of
private property, either at Laredo or elswhere, is positively,
maliciously, infamously false, and its author is Sam Houston,
the murderer of the slandered. I understand, however, that
he pretends to give as his authority an individual by the name
of H. Clay Davis, who came to Texas some years since, repre-
senting himself as the nephew of Henry Clay, and took up
with a Mexican woman. Page 142 of my work shows that he
was the only American citizen who ever deserted our standard.
That page thus speaks of him : —

" We have alluded to this circumstance as the first and last instance in
our whole ^Revolution, where an American, born and raised in the United
States, ever deserted our standard to join that of cur Mexican enemy, and it
should be a warning to others against a too intimate Mexican association."

The best refutation of the Senator's slander of my receiving
$24,154 04 by a resolution of the congress, for what he, Hous-
ton, insinuates was a false charge, is contained in the proceed-
ings of the first Congress, Journals House of Representatives,
pages 164-5 and 272. The following law, which was passed
in accordance with these proceedings, approved and executed

49

"by the Senator, then President of Texas, will show what he
thought of its justice at that time :

"Be it resolved, &c., — That the President be and is hereby authorized to
pay to Thomas J. Green, or order, out of the first means in the Treasury or
any agency of Texas, the sum of $24,154 04, together with the damages and
cost of protest, for or on account of this Government, provided the said
Thomas J. Green shall file with the Executive the account of the same, report-
ed to this Congress, receipted in full.

" IRA INGRAM,
" Speaker of House of Representatives.

"RICHARD ELLIS,
"Pres. Pro tern, of Senate.
"Approved, Dec. 17th, 1836.

"SAM HOUSTON."

I was paid this amount by the President's order upon David
White, the Texas agent at Mobile, not in good money, which
was due me, but in Land Scrip, which I sold at ten cents per
acre, and in other depreciated stuff, almost valueless : — so the
amount proved nearly an entire loss, and up to this day I have
never been a supplicant to Congress for relief.

The Senator's attempt at wit, for the purpose of diverting
serious attention from what I have said of his two fugitive
slaves, Tom and Esau, pages 122-3, is pointless and stupid.
What I have related of them is literally true. I might have
said, with equal truth, that Esau said that "he. did not so much
dislike the blasphemous swearing of Old Sam, but that he had
to sleep with him of nights, and scratch his back ; — this was
more than this nigger could stand ; — I just as leave sleep with
a dead horse." This was the language of Esau, the " Hack
boy" as the Senator calls him. Boy, indeed ! he weighed two
hundred pounds, was as black as the ten of spades, as greasy,
and nearly as filthy as his old master.

I have learned, but for the truth of which I cannot vouch
that the senator, in some northern abolition address, said he
had manumitted his slaves. Up to the period above referred
to, Tom and Esau, with the exception of his woman and chil-
dren, were the only slaves President Houston claimed to own.
We have seen how Tom and Esau manumitted themselves by
leg bail ; and I understand that it is a fact well known, that
he sold Martha Houston and children, as she called herself,

4

50

and put the money in his pocket, or rather in his belly.
in my knowledge of physiology, the senator is the only animal
that feeds upon its young, with the exception of the alligator.
Providence seems to have supplied the latter with instinct to-
eat only a portion of its young, to prevent an increase too
great to be subsisted. Nature has not been so bountiful with
the senator. In the absence of instinct and morals, human
nature is the worst of brutes. Thus a gormand avarice makes
him sell and eat the African litter and the mother who bare
them, while we have seen him fly from his Cherokee wife and
papooses, because he could not sell, and was too mean to feed
them.

I said in the above paragraph, that these were the only
slaves at that period which the senator claimed to own. Whe-
ther he owned these lawfully or honestly is more than doubtful^
The boy Tom was a kidnapped slave of Colonel Augustus Als-
ton, of Tallahassee, Florida, and had been run into Texas.
Esau, I am informed, was purchased by a government agent
with government securities, which were never accounted for.
The Journals of the House of Representatives, Ylllth Congress,
pages 87, 98, and 104, will show that the House believed he
had a " Cherokee wife and children."

" Mr. Lott, by leave, offered the following resolution, to wit : —

" Resolved, ~by the House of Representatives, That the President be, and is
hereby, requested to furnish this House, immediately and without delay, a
copy of the letter of the King of the Netherlands, in relation to the marriage
of his daughter ; his answer thereto ; also, his correspondence with the for"
eign powers now in treaty with this Republic, on the birth of his son, Sam. —
Laid upon the table one day.

" The resolution calling upon the President for information in relation to
a correspondence with the King of the Netherlands, in relation to the mar-
riage of his daughter ; also, to the birth of his son, Sam. — Read second time.

" Mr. Lott moved its reference to the Committee on Foreign Relations. —
Lost. — Mr. Cazneau offered the following amendment — after the word * Sam,'
insert — lalso, his wife and children in tfle Cherokee Nation.1 Mr. Rowett
moved its postponement until next day. Mr. Kendrick moved its postpone-
ment until the 1st of June. The Ayes and Noes being called thereon, stood
34 ayes and 1 No. — Next day — Mr. Rabb moved to strike from the journals
the resolution calling upon the President for correspondence with the King of
the Netherlands in relation to the marriage of his daughter ; also, in relation,
to the birth of his son Sam, with the amendment of Mr. Cazneau. — LOST."

51

With all the senator's influence, he could not expunge these
proceedings.

A Mend of the senator onca applied to few for a letter of
recommendation for office. The letter was at once written^
warm and strong ; but no sooner was the applicant's back
turned than the senator wrote to the party telling him to dis-
regard the former letter, that the applicant was unworthy, etc.
The applicant got hold of the last written letter, put it in his
pocket, and asked the senator if he had ever so written. With
uplifted eyes and hands, he protested before high heaven he
never had. Whereupon the letter was produced. The senator
looked at it with a ghastly grin, and replied : "Drunk, ~by God !
this hand may have written, l)ut this heart never dictated that
letter, my dear friend" So it is now with the senator. He
doubtless forgets that in' 1836, while he was abusing President
Burnet, for the Santa Anna treaty, he wrote me a letter of
eight pages, approving in his highest terms of eulogy my con-
duct at Yelasco, in relation to Santa Anna, which he now so
vehemently abuses. He said — " you deserve the lasting grati"
tude of the country for your conduct in relation to the pris-
oner" It is the opinion and approval of better men that I
value. Gen. Thomas J. Rusk writes me thus from his " Head
Quarters, Victoria, June ~L5th, 1836 :

" DEAR GEN'L. — ... I would have liked much to have seen you, to
have tendered to you in person the expressions of my gratitude on the part
of the people of Texas^ for your zeal in our cause, as well as to have commu-
nicated with you freely upon the present position of our affairs. The gene-
ral opinion prevailing that our difficulties with Mexico have terminated is
ill-founded. We now as much underrate as when I saw you before, we over-
rated the enemy — and we have but a short period to organize upon the
frontiers a sufficient force to meet the enemy in another campaign — when,
beyond doubt, he will come upon us with redoubled numbers. I have re-
ceived information entitled to credit, that the government of Mexico have
directed Gen. Filisola to disregard any treaties entered into with Santa
Anna.

" I have the honor to be, with great respect,

" Your obedient servant,

" THOMAS J. RUSK.."
To Brig'r Gen'l. T. J. GREEN."

This was the general sentiment of the country at that time.
I had been to the United States, mortgaged my property, raised

52

money, recruited men, brought into the field munitions of war,
and provision to sustain those men. A portion of my brigade
and my supplies had already reached the vicinity of General
Husk's Headquarters. My quarter-masters were directed 1y
me to make no difference in the issuing of provisions between
Gen. Eusk's brigade and my own. These were things which
an honest man and a patriot thanked me for, because these
supplies found him destitute, and the government wholly un-
able to help him. His letter shows that his forces were at that
time reduced to less than four hundred men, without ammuni-
tion or provisions, (except green beef,) and not good horses
enough to send expresses through the country. At this time I
had been ordered by President Burnet to proceed against the
Indians on the upper Brazos with that portion of my brigade
which had landed at Yelasco. I promptly proceeded to exe-
cute said order, and had advanced into the country as far as
Coles' settlement, some hundred and twenty miles, through a
rainy season and boggy roads, when Gen. Eusk's despatch
reached me, with the following information, which I give en-
tire, as the best refutation ,of the senator's slander about my
getting near the Indians and then turning my course. Gen.
Eusk, in sending these despatches, informed me, that he had
sent Col. Smith and Captain Billingsly, with two hundred
mounted men in the direction of the Indians ; and requested
me, in the strongest terms, to re-inforce him with all possible
despatch. I would have been recreant, to every duty of patri-
otism not to have complied. The President approved and
applauded my course for so doing.

"MATAMOKAS, STATE OF TAMAULIPAS,

June 9th, 1836.
"Gen. THOMAS J. RUSK.

" Dear Sir:— The messenger who carries this is strongly recommended by
all the friends in this place. The news he carries is of the greatest importance
to Texas. In God's name ~be governed ~by it. I expected to have carried this
news to Texas myself; but to have been made prisoner is not what I ex-
pected. I was to have left this evening by the assistance of the friends of

our cause. At 12 o'clock this day, I have been called up by Gen. ,

and obliged to give security that I would appear at any time I was called
upon, or that I would not leave the city, or else be imprisoned in the quartet
Captains Teal and Karnes are prisoners also. I hope, if the bad faith at the

53

Mission, Goliad, and elsewhere, will not fully open your eyes to the perfi-
diousness of these unprincipled wretches, in the detention of our Commis-
sioners in this place, as well as myself, and four of my men — all with pass-
ports from Gen. Filisola — you will hereafter act on principle of retaliation,
regardless of consequences to us. If you had shot the officers already taken,
I have no doubt this second attack would not have been made. The infor-
mation is so full in the other documents or letters, that it is not necessary for
me to go into detail. The advice given in them, pay all attention to ; and, for
heaven's sake, pay strict attention, and profit thereby. To Galveston and
Matagorda, and your prisons, look well. Our situation is bad enough, but
death can cure our troubles.

" I am your enemy's prisoner,

"MAJOR W. P. MILLER,

Legion Cavalry."

"MATAMORAS, June 9th, 1836.

" My Dear Friend: — I am sorry to inform you of our unfortunate situa-
tion. We are detained for nothing but to keep you ignorant of the enemy's
intentions. They will soon be down on you in great numbers. Four thou-
sand will leave here in four or eight days, for La Baliia, — it is supposed via
Nueces or San Patricio, — and as many more in fifteen or twenty days, by
water, from Vera Cruz, to land at Conano or Brazos — not yet ascertained at
•which place. They make war of extermination, and show no quarter. Now,
my dear friend, you see what treating with a prisoner is. But you must
make the best of it. You can fall back to the Colorado, and call all the men
to the field ; for if you do not, Texas is gone. They have heard that the
President is at Velasco with a very weak guard, and say they will have him in
less than two weeks. I think you ought to send all the prisoners there to San
Augustine, for safe-keeping. You will have from 7,000 to 10,000 troops to
contend with, many of them cavalry, to be well mounted to murder women
and children. No, soldiers ! You must not spare any pains for the sake of
saving us. We are willing to be lost to save Texas. Our soldiers, march to
the field, and there defend your rights. They say that you are rebels ; but you
must show them that you are soldiers, and know how to defend your rights.
Send all the prisoners to the east. We are not in jail yet, but to-morrow
demand our passports ; as soon as that is done we shall have quarters in the
calaboose. We have good friends, which, at present, prudence forbids me
to name, for fear of detection. Urea is Commander-in-chief of the Mexican
army, and says he will not stop short of the Sabine river. Be not discour-
aged— poison every pool of water in the road. You must now work hard —
work as well as fighting. Blow up Goliad and Bexar ; you must have a
sufficient force in the field at once, and we will whip them again. Be united ;
but do not let the people of the United States know what kind of a war they
make of it, and they will certainly come to our assistance. I do not consider
our lives in danger, if in close quarters. Do not let my father and sister know

54:

that we are prisoners ; if they do, say that I am treated well. Remember me
to Col. Millard, and my Lieutenant, and all friends — tell them I will be with
them soon. To give you as much information as possible, my letter is in this
small hand, and bid you adieu in haste. — Ourjcaute for ever !

"Your friend,

"HENRY TEAL."

" I concur with all that has been stated above and foregoing. — Your obe-
dient servant,

" H. W. KARNES, Captain."

" A true copy of the original, signed by Captains Teal and Karnes.
" HEAD-QUARRTERS, VICTORIA,
June Vlih, 1836.

" THOMAS J. RUSK."

Tliis correspondence, so creditable to Major Miller and Cap-
tains Teal and Karnes, our commissioners, who had been sent
by General Rusk to see the retreating Mexican army evacuate
Texas, was of a most alarming character. They knew that Gen-
eral Kusk's force was reduced to a few hundred men, and des-
titute of supplies, and believed that their President, Santa
Anna, had sailed for Mexico ;' and hence this determination to
countermarch upon Texas. Dates will show that this deter-
mination on the part of the enemy was not abandoned until
after they heard of the retention of Santa Anna, at Yelasco,
and the arrival of my brigade with abundant supplies for the
campaign. Where was the Senator during these exciting
times ? Either hawking Santa Anna's saddle and spurs about
the United States, or drunk at his partner's in Eastern Texas.

The Senator again invents this senseless falsehood — " He
even had the meanness to steal women's saddles" The follow-
ing order from President Burnet to myself, will show by what
authority I acted in supplying the army with " beef, horses^
wagons, <&c. ;"

" EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

" Velasco, 7th June, 1836.
" To Brigadier-General

" THOS. J. GREEN.

" SIR — You will take the forces [assigned to you at this place, and proceed
with all practical expedition to the northern frontier of our settlements, where
several small tribes of Indians are said to have concentrated for the purposes
of depredation Should circumstances and the public good

55

Tender it necessary, you will press horses, provisions, and whatever private
property may be required. But I want to enjoin upon you great circumspec-
tion in the exercise of this harsh power, for it is beyond dispute that many
shameful abuses have been practised under it. Be very cautious, therefore,
to whom you depute an authority so invidious and so susceptible of perversion.
"Wishing you and your companions in arms a successful and glorious cam-
paign, I am,

"Your obedient servant,

" DAVID G. BURNET."

The following letter will show with what promptness I
obeyed the above order of the President :

"BRAZORIA, June 12th, 1836.
" To His Excellency,

" DAVID G. BURNET,

" President of the Republic of Texas.

" SIR — I arrived here two days since, and found not a horse or wagon of
any description with which to transport our provisions. After much difficulty
in sending around the country, I have succeeded in procuring teams to trans-
port about half of my provisions, and have taken up our line of march via
Columbia and San Filipe, to the seat of war. My present force at this place
is about two hundred rank and file, besides the 100 mounted men under Bre-
vet-Brigadier Felix Huston, now in advance. Further news arrived here,
stating that the Indians are in much larger numbers than was reported in
your despatches. If so, it will be prudent for the troops at Coxe's Point, be-
longing to my brigade, to be ordered to advance and join me, as I understand
it is probable that the present state of Gen. Rusk's command may place it out
of his power to comply with your requisition for the 100 mounted men. I
would further suggest whether it would not be best for your Excellency to
take some early orders upon reinforcing my command by such companies as
may come in from the United States via Red River. With sentiments of
high consideration,

" I am, your obt. servt,

"THOS. J. GREEN,
" Brig. Gen. Texas Army."

Upon the receipt of Gen. Husk's letter with his despatches
from Matamoras, I again wrote to President Burnet, thus :

" COLES' SETTLEMENT,

" June 28th, 1836.
'" His Excellency,

"DAVID G. BURNET,

" Pres. of the Republic of Texas.

" SIR — Enclosed you will find a letter from Gen. Rusk to me, of the 17th
mst. This news, is unexpected and extraordinary, and under any circum-

56

stances leaves me but one course, and that to meet the call promptly and
without hesitation. It is proper for me, however, here to remark, that the
spies which Gen. Felix Huston sent out, bring intelligence that the Indian
information you received was not only highly colored, but much magnified,
and that the Indians had disappeared far north soon after their depredations,
and that they had not been in large numbers. On yesterday I despatched
Brevet-Brigadier Gen. F. Huston, in person, to Gen. Rusk's head quarters,
and to-day I have ordered on the cavalry under his command ; and to-mor-
row shall follow with the remaining forces under my command. I think that
from the turnout hereabouts, and those troops just now arriving from the
States, we will have from 1,500 to 2,000 men in the field in fifteen days. I
have advised Gen. Rusk, to drive back all the cattle to the east of the Cola-
rado, and make that our strongest line of defence. We ought to fight the
enemy there, and if we do, I have every confidence he will not cross.

" I have had much difficulty in procuring beef, as most of the citizens
upon the road hide out their cattle, and some have several times stolen my
teams. But now, since this news, they begin to get very kind, and say that
they will feed us upon the Colorado, for their horses are so low in flesh many
cannot again run.

" Your obedient servant,

THOS. J. GREEN,
Brig.-Gen. Texas Army."

In the execution of President Burnet's orders, it became
my unavoidable duty not only to feed my men, but to procure
transportation. Many on the line of my march believed that
our Mexican difficulties were at an end ; and they were un-
willing to furnish beef or horses for government credit. Those
who were believed to be the best friends of the Mexicans were
the first to refuse our troops supplies. Had there been more
such patriotic citizens as Dr. Hoxie, Col. Coles, Capt. Swisher,
Josiah Bell, Mrs. Ebberly and Miss Rebecca Cummings, and
others, I would not have been compelled to have pressed a
beef or a horse into the service. As it was, it became my duty
to take for the service some eight or ten horses. For this ser-
vice I detailed Lieutenant, now Major James Scott, the United
States Post-office agent for the State of Texas. He was charged
in his duty according to President Burnet's instructions to me.
If he ever took a " woman's saddle," it was in violation of his
orders, (which I do not believe,) and for which, had he com-
mitted such an outrage, I would have been the first to punish
him therefor. Major Scott is the warm personal friend of the

57

senator, and enjoys at present a lucrative office through his re-
commendation. The senator has long known that he was the
officer who pressed these horses into the service ; and, if a
woman's saddle was taken, it was the work of his friend. I
believe it a most unwitty and stupid lie. I do say that every
beef, and horse, or other property that was taken, was re-
ceipted for at the highest valuation, and Texas has paid or
acknowledged the debt. I was particular to offer receipts at
the time. Some few refused ; but whenever they have applied
since, I have most cheerfully furnished them.

I must take leave for the present of the numerous other
minor falsehoods contained in the senator's speech. They have
already been abundantly refuted, not only in my work, but
by ex-Presidents Burnet, Lamar, and Jones, Gen. S. H. Foote's
history of Texas, Commodore Moore, Gen. Hunt, and numer-
ous other writers ; whilst I notice his two most prominent, to
wit, that concerning the " Texas Bank charter" and the one
about the broken " West Florida Bcmk."

To say that these are base falsehoods, is to use language
which poorly expresses the blind malignity and infamous pur-
pose of the author. They are HELLISH LIES, wholly destitute of
the shadow of truth ; and hundreds of the most intelligent men
of Texas will bear testimony to this assertion. To the first of
these calumnies the senator has devoted a large portion of his
speech. He evidently feels here that the ground is soft be-
neath him, and " hereby hangs a tale"

The senator has been charged by many gentlemen of Texas,
with having been bribed, while President of that Republic, to
sign this law. "We will see with what truth. On the 12th of
December, 1836, see journals, House of Representatives -, page
261-2, an act of incorporation styled the " Texas Railroad,
Navigation and Banking Company" was passed, granting to
" Branch T. Archer, James €ollingsworth, and their present
and future associates, successors, and assigns," the rights and
privileges therein set forth. The i\±v& present associates of the
petitioners, Archer and Collingsworth, were Stephen F. Austin
(the father of Texas), Ex-Governor J. Pinckney Henderson,
and Thomas F. M'Kinney. They organized after the adjourn-
ment of the Legislature, and, for the purpose of carrying out

58

in good faith the objects of the charter, invited other gentle-
men of influence, both in and out of Texas, to the number of
sixteen, to an equal participation of its benefits. Among those
out of Texas, were Judge James H. Gholson and Col. 0. P. Green,
of Virginia ; Col. "William Christie, of New Orleans ; and,
subsequently, Gen. James Hamilton, of South Carolina. My-
self, amongst other prominent gentlemen of Texas, were of the
future associates ; and, amongst the Texas associates, the per-
sonal and bosom friend of President Houston, John K. Allen,
applied for and obtained two shares, of a sixteenth each, one
in his own name, and the other in Uank. It will be recollect-
ed that President Houston was at this time " an anti-bank,
mint drop " democrat ; and the presumption consequently was,
that he would refuse to sign any bank charter. He did, how-
ever, sign this charter, with its large banking privileges. This
was at the time a matter of general surprise ; but the sequel will
explain. By the terms of the charter, $25,000 dollars were to
be paid as a bonus to the State, in gold or silver, within
eighteen months from the passage thereof, or, in case of fail-
ure, the charter was to be forfeited. Before the expiration of
the eighteen months, a new Legislature having convened,
enacted a law requiring the paper issue of the Republic (usu-
ally called star money) " to be received for all debts, dues, and
demands of any kind whatsoever, owing or coming to the Re-
public." Before the expiration of the eighteen months, the
Hon. Branch T. Archer, President of said Banking Company,
presented the Secretary of the Treasury (the Hon. Henry
Smith) the bonus of $25,000 in the star money of the Repub-
lic. The Secretary of the Treasury acknowledged, by a certi-
ficate now in my possession, that this tender was duly and
lawfully made, but that President Houston had ordered him
not to receive any thing but gold or silver. This was a few
days previous to the expiration of the eighteen months, with-
in which time, according to the terms of the charter, the bonus
was to have been paid. The day before this tender was made,
this identical President Houston offered to sell to the said
Branch T. Archer ', President of the said Banking Company r,
the identical share of one sixteenth, which the said John K.
Allen had obtained in Hank from the original grantees. The

59

Hon. Mr. Archer, as pure a man as ever lived, suspecting cor-
ruption on the part of President Houston, indignantly refused
to purchase, even at the low price of $4,000, when said shares
had been a short time previous sold at from $12,000 to $20,000
each. President Houston had retained his share a little too long ;
and, failing to get even $4,000 therefor, Ms anti-lank, " mint
drop" principles turned up so strongly, that he ordered the
Secretary of the Treasury to receive nothing as a bonus but
gold or silver. He had as little right to make this order as
his brother-in-law Bowles, the Chief of the Cherokees. The
law governed the case. The co-operators complied with the
law ; and no lawyer in Texas, or out of it, who is honest, will
hesitate to say the tender was legal, and therefore all the rights
under the charter were vested in the Company. The Congress
of the Eepublic of Texas, subsequent to the tender, in relation
to this matter, determined that they could not interfere with
vested rights, and that to determine these rights was the pro-
vince of the Judiciary. The constitution of the (present) State
of Texas reiterates this principle in its broadest sense, and
guarantees fully all the rights vested by the Eepublic.

The Senator's charge that I sold $28,000 of this stock, is
utterly false ; so far from this, I have never sold or offered to
sell one dollar's worth to living man, whilst others of the asso-
ciation, amongst whom Lieut. Gov. Albert C. Horton, Chief
Justice James Collingsworth, Thomas F. McKinney, Samuel
M. Williams, "Wm. H. Wharton, James Knight, C. P. Green,
and others, did sell all or portions of theirs, at prices ranging
from $20,000, down ; I, on the contrary, became the purchaser
of a large portion of this stock, for which I paid more than
$40,000, as my receipts and certificates will show. This heavy
loss I have borne for eighteen years, without complaint ; and
whilst I and my associates have secured to us the only banking
privilege in the state of Texas, we have made no effort to avail
ourselves of these chartered rights, in opposition to what might
possibly be the public sentiment of the state ; and, whilst I be-
lieve that a system of banking in all of her sister southern
states makes it necessary for Texas to adopt and foster a simi-
lar institution, I have not attempted to thrust it upon her in
advance of public opinion. Whatever the rights of myself and

60

associates may be, we hold them lawfully and constitutionally ^
and we will thus exercise them, or not at all. Thus it is that
the Senator, knowing that I had the proofs of his corruption in
my possession, has devoted so large a portion of his senatorial
vindication to this subject. I have said elsewhere that this
peculation and stealing was an every day business of President
Houston. Does he deny that he advocated the removal of the
seat of government to a place called for himself, and for a
large number of town lots in said place ? If he does, I refer to
the books of the town proprietors, and to their agent, Major J.
S. Holman, who, I learn, did, by order of said proprietors,
make out his gratuitous deeds, Tor which he, Houston, never
paid a dollar. The Senator, in his " /Stationery Stud-Horse"
letter to his friend William Bryan, says, " I will rely upon you
in all things, as I have always done, and will only say, this is
a < Stationery ' Bill ! ! ! "

What does the Senator mean by these exclamations ? What
does he mean by " all things f " Have they any reference to
a duplicate of the Land Office seal, found among his friend's
papers, amongst which was this honest " STATIONERY " Bill ; or
is this seal, by which Texas lands can be created, a part of the
" STATIONERY ? " Where is the Seal ?

The other of the Senator's assertions, that I purchased a
plantation with " twenty thousand dollars of the circulation of
a broken West Florida Bank," is notoriously false as any one
of his numerous other slanders. I can appeal for the truth of
this assertion to the present Governor of Texas, and Judge
Robert J. Townes, Hon. John W. Harris, Hon. James C. Wil-
son, Dr. Branch T. Archer, and every other gentleman of my
very extensive acquaintance in Texas. So far from which, I
never did own, directly or indirectly, one single dollar of said
paper, neither did I ever circulate one dollar thereof. It is
true, as was the custom then and now in Texas, that I endors-
ed some few of these bills, — the circumstances of my so doing
are these : Captain Eed, of the regular army of Texas, was in-
troduced to me by our mutual friend President Lamar, as his
warm friend, who informed me he had some West Florida
money, which was perfectly good, but that he could make no
use of it without the name of some gentleman well known in

61

Texas ; that he had immediate use for a few hundred dollars,
and desired me as a matter of personal favor to endorse said
bills, which I did for him, as I should have done for any other
gentleman whom I looked upon as an honorable man. With-
in a day or two subsequently, Mr. Thomas F. M'Kinney, of
Galveston, informed me that he had good reason to suspect
the solvency of said bank, from a letter which had accidental-
ly came into his possession. I went immediately to Capt. Red,
and made him cancel my endorsement. Capt. Red informed
me, however, that he had lost at a faro bank some five or six
hundred dollar bills, and promised to redeem them, so that no
one was ever the loser in any lonafide transaction in receiving

said bills." Bancroft Libra-

The senator has told one truth, and only one, I believe, in
his whole speech — it is this : — That I did instigate and stimu-
late the Mier prisoners to rise upon their guards and obtain
their liberty and return to Texas. At the battle of Mier, Gen.
Ampudia promised that our men should be kept upon the Rio
Grande until an exchange could be effected. No sooner, how-
ever, than the Texians were cajoled into a surrender of their
arms, they were informed that they were to be marched some
two thousand miles to the interior, either to the city of Mexico
or the Castle of Perote. This was the violation of promise, so
horrible to the feelings of our men, that they naturally spoke
of resistance to its execution whenever an opportunity offered.
The senator's two bed-fellowTs, Tom and Esau, were in the habit
of mixing with our prisoners, and soon communicated these
threats to Gen. Ampudia, who sent for Gen. Fisher and my-
self, and informed us that we should be held as hostages for
the good conduct of our men — that he should keep us under a
separate guard of forty men one day in advance of the main
body of the prisoners, and if they made any attempt to over-
power their guards, our lives should be the forfeit ; and he
directed that Col. Savreigo and guards, who had us in charge,
should take us by the prison where our men were confined, so
that we might inform them in person of the consequences in
which such an attempt would involve us.

Believing, as I did, that this long march of two thousand
miles, and "Mexican humanity" would cause a loss, by the

62 ,

most horrid suffering, of a large portion of our men, I did not
hesitate to make them promise me, before I left the prison, to
lose no opportunity of effecting their escape, regardless of any
consequences that might befall my person. This they did with
tears in their eyes, and hearts bursting with anguish. From
my then imperfect knowledge of the country, I supposed that
the crossing of the Eio Juan, or at the Kinconada, would be the
most favorable points for such an attempt. Unforeseen cir-
cumstances however prevented the consummation of this ad-
vice at these places, and it was not until the main body of our
men overtook us at Salado, that the plan of an attack was
consummated. That plan, as is known to Dr. William M.
Sheppard, late Secretary of the Texian Navy, and other officers
present, was my own. The whole world, with the exception of
their calumniator, senator Houston, awards lasting honor to
these brave men, who thus struck for their liberty against three
times their numbers of armed guards. Had the whole of my
plan have been adhered to, of never leaving the main road,
four days would have taken them into Texas, without the loss
of a man, after their victory was gained at Salado. Chance
prevented myself and other officers from being with them, or
the whole of that plan would have been carried out.

The Senator in his speech says that I am a " coward." This,
I presume, is of the smallest moment to the United States
Senate. It is what, however, those who know me as well as
does the Senator, will not believe. Those who were with me
at Guerrero, at the Alcantro, Mier, Salado, Perote, at Bear
River, and other places of danger, know it to be false.

Even the Senator himself seems to have changed his opinion
upon this subject. The last two interviews I had with him were
in the spring, 1844:, at a public meeting in the city of Galveston,
Texas. I denounced him then as " villain and traitor" and
made him leave the stand, fly frbm the meeting, and seek pro-
tection under a lady's roof. The next interview I had with the
Senator, was in Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, at the Democratic
Convention in 1848, in the presence of the Hon. Isaac E.
Holmes, and General Daniel M. Baringer, our late minister to
Spain. There he " took the door," with the haste of one who
wished to escape the explosion of a powder magazine. Since

63

which time, to quiet his nerves, he has taken to the cold water
cure ; and I have my doubts whether the hydropathy of the
Brazos, Colorado, or the Jordan itself, will keep them still.
Speaking of the Colorado, reminds me of an incident illustrative
of the Senator's benevolence. In 1841 the Senator was upset
in a stage and thrown into the Colorado river, at the town of
Bastrop, and not knowing how to swim, under the unerring
law of gravity (whiskey being lighter than water), he floated
down the river some distance, in a nearly drowned condition,
when an old negro man, by the name of Sam Banks, plunged
in and rescued him. The Senator was taken to the house of
Mr. Noessel, where he remained some weeks ; but before leav-
ing, he requited the kindness of his host, by swindling him not
only of his bill, but also of a certain " Hooded filly " belonging to
Mrs. Noessel. His benevolence was more manifest when he
came to reward the heroic old negro, who had risked his own
life to save that of the Senator. How do you suppose this was
done ? By procuring the freedom of the old man and provid-
ing him a competent pension the remainder of his days ? This
was the natural reward which any gentleman would have applied
to such service. Not so with the Senator. I am told, upon
good authority, that he put his hand in his pocket, and abso-
lutely gave his rescuer " ONE DIME IN SILVEK !" Last summer
he passed through this same town of Bastrop, where this poor
old negro called upon him for charity, when the Senator's
heart, after fourteen years' expansion, did give the old negro a
silver half dollar, which he threw under his feet with contempt,
and died within a few weeks thereafter, saying up to the day
of his death, " If God would forgive him, he never would do
the lilce again ; that he thought it was a gentleman, and not
OLD SAM, he was pulling out of the river"

These facts, disgraceful as they appear, are nevertheless
true. They have been published time and again, and can be
attested by many of the most respectable citizens of that county.

The Senator had many causes of complaint against me ;
among others, one well known to many of the first gentlemen
of Texas now living, to wit — of his swindling me out of my
cloak, and General Santa Anna out of his gold snuff-box. The
circumstances of this transaction are these : 1836, during the

64:

session of the first congress of the republic, then sitting at
Columbia on the Brazos, President Houston begged me to give
him a valuable cloak, which I had just received from New
Orleans, stating that he was greatly in need of one, which I
cheerfully did. The following day he visited the prisoner,
General Santa Anna, then confined twelve miles distant at
Orizimbo. Spying in the hands of the prisoner a luxurious
gold snuff-box, valued at more than a thousand dollars, he
placed upon the prisoner's shoulders the cloak of which he
(Houston) had that day begged of me for his own use. This
favor done to the prisoner, with the copious admiraton on the
part of Houston of said snuff-box, the prisoner, in gen-
tleman courtesy, could not do less than to offer it to him in
return. Thus he received this, among other bribes, of the
President of Mexico, in violation of his oath and the constitu-
tion of the Republic. I ask now of the Senator, Where is the
snuff-box ? Has he sold it, as he did the prisoner's saddle ; or
has he got it secreted from public view, because to receive and
hold it thus, was in violation of his oath and the constitution.
The further facts are these : No sooner had President Houston
been inaugurated, and even before, than he visited the prisoner,
got a glimpse of the snuff-box, and returned to Columbia and
begged of me my cloak, as a gentlemanly pretext by which he
could get the prisoner's snuff-box. At this time he also com-
menced a negotiation with the prisoner for his release — (see
pages 111, 116, and 134 to 145, inclusive, of the Journals of
the House of Representatives). It was determined, by a vote
21 to 5, inexpedient to release the prisoner ; yet, in violation
of this expression of the Congress, President Houston had con-
summated a plan, and at that time was carrying it into effect, by
which he did so smuggle the prisoner out of the country. Few
will believe that Houston was so stupendous an ass, as to sup-
pose that Santa Anna's promises would hold beyond the bounds
of Texas. Houston's motives, then, in acting in violation to the
vote of the Congress, and the public sentiment of the country,
must have been strongly mercenary, as have been repeatedly
charged upon him.

Another reason for the Senator's dislike to me has been my
uncompromising hostility to the demoralizing American system

65

of divorce. From earliest manhood, in every legislature in
which I have served, I have opposed this system of prostitu-
tion, as destructive of morals and good society. I have had
occasion to refer to the Senator himself for repudiating his
former wives with as much indifference as he did his honest
debts, or as little compunction as Henry the Eighth. I crave
pardon for speaking of Henry and the Senator in the same
paragraph — the hyena and the mink resemble as well.

The Senator says, that of the "sixty-seven gallant brave
men" who fell in the Mier Expedition, only the seventeen
decimated claim my special sympathy. " How does he account
for the loss of the other fifty f" I refer the Senator to the
following extract from my work, which he says he " has read
so particularly." ^QQ pages 369 to 72, inclusive: —

" Let us now turn to inquire after the main body of our countrymen —
prisoners ; and we do so with feelings of mournful sorrow, with a heart over-
whelmed with sadness. We go back to the prisons of San Luis Potosi, and
find them covered with rags and filth, loaded with vermin, and worn down
with hunger and all the multiplied cruelties of their captors. We trace their
bloody path south three hundred miles, through the scorching plains of
Mexico, by the unburied bones of many noble souls who sunk under a task
more than human. We see the brave and dauntless Cameron taken out upon
this path and murdered for no other cause than his bravery. We see the
remainder herded together like beasts of burden, and driven forth into the
streets with sticks and bayonets by brutal overseers, as scavengers of filth
too horrible to contemplate. We see their manly frames worn down by an
insufficient allowance of the offal of a rotten population. As the opposite
plate will show, which was drawn from life by our indefatigable fellow pris-
oner, Charles M'Laughlin, we see them heavily ironed, working upon a
pavement in front of the archbishop's palace at Tacubaya ; and what was
still more grating to their feelings, was to be gazed upon from their coaches,
by the yellow, pepper-eating, demi-savages, as if they had been so many hye-
nas. We trace most of the survivors, naked and emaciated, two hundred
miles east, to the dark, cold dungeons of Perote ; the balance to San Juan de
Ulloa, to be offered up as a certain sacrifice to the vomito, that universal ma-
laria of death-. We follow around the massive castle walls of Perote upon the
north, and in the bottom of the great ditch find newly-stirred earth. Here,
underneath the loose sand, without a plank to cover their bones, or a stone to
mark the place — without the last sad rights of burial, in a spot not only un-
consecrated, but cursed by a fanatical priesthood, lie the remains of the best
spirits of our country. Here, in a foreign land, in a priest-ridden nation, and
in full view of the eternal snows of Orazaba, repose the bones of fathers,

5

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brothers, husbands, and sons of Texians — here we helped to deposite Booker
and Jackson, Trapnal and Crews, Saunders, Gray, Trimble, and a long list of
others. Peace to their ashes, and a nation's gratitude to their memories !
But, oh ! how the heart sickens at perfidy the most unparalleled, when we
trace those bloody murders, starvation, and deaths to the President of our
own country! I would to Gor! that a due regard to truth, as well as justice
to the memories of these brave men, would allow me to throw the mantle of
eternal darkness over the sequel ; if so, I would bury this horrible conclusion
in lasting oblivion for my country's credit. It is, however, my task to regis-
ter this bloody tale, and I have no option but in truth ; and when President
Houston has been charged as the cause of the sufferings and murder of our
countrymen, for our country's honor it has been too clearly proven. (See
Appendix, Nos. 2 and 6.)

" We still look after the surviving half of the brave band of Mier, and find
them in the cheerless cells of Perote, living skeletons, without clothing enough
to hide their nakedness ; and what language do we hear from them ? Though
they feel mortified and indignant at their President's denunciation of them,
and his Heartless usurpation of the laws of their Congress, in withholding
their supplies, yet there is but one sentiment, one language among them, and
that is * the honor and liberty of their country? At all times, all occasions,
and under all circumstances, when hunger has pressed them most, when death
made no sham visits to their gloomy abodes, boldly did they publish this sen-
timent. Time after time did they write home to their countrymen, 'Let no
consideration of us forfeit your country's honor. Let us rot in these dungeons
ere you concede" one inch to these colored barbarians.' "

The Senator, while known to be a physical coward, is said
to be a man of moral courage. To some extent this is true.
Moral courage to change his politics without reason. Moral
courage to commit, in the daily practices of life, the vilest in-
decencies. Moral courage, under senate protection, to fulmi-
nate numerous falsehoods against the best men in the country.
Moral courage to commit perjury in open court, as is known to
Governor J. Pinckney Henderson, and other gentlemen in
Texas. Moral courage to play saint and sinner, thief and
liar, without the change of countenance, or the quickening of
a pulsation. Moral courage to break a seal or steal a dollar.
Yet, Senator,* President, Preacher, Big Drunk, General
Sam Houston, is an extraordinary man. It is impossible, in
the limits of this reply, that I can do him full justice ; and
having much material still on hand, it is due to the public that
I should give a faithful account of his life cmd doings, in which
I shall take him, without fear or favor from his " BIG DKTHSTK "

67

administration of his Cherokee wigwam, to his senatorial
charlatanry.

I come now to the most pleasant part of this defence — it is
to ask pardon, both of the Senate and the public, for the use of
language, while in every instance true, yet mortifying, deeply
mortifying, to myself for its necessity. I have been driven to
its use by a tissue of falsehoods, malicious, vindictive, fiend-
ish, which has no other foundation in truth than the ipse dixit
of a Senator, the most mendacious who ever disgraced your
high body. I am willing that the Senate and public shall
judge whether there has been a necessity for language on my
part, thus harsh, though true. To apply the ordinary lash to
the hide of the rhinoceros, would be as futile as "darting
straws against the wind." I have been compelled to use the
rasp.

I am, very respectfully,

THOMAS J. GKEEK