413
THE AUSTIN PAPERS
speculaLions of Williams and others when they were at Monclova- This is utterly false--1 never have been, am not, and never will be interested in those speculations, directly nor indirectly, and nc) one in Texas is more opposed to them than I a~, and this I say in the nature of a rule of Action, so far as one can be formed from my knowledge of the subject, for the fact is that I never have fully understood it, untill within a few days, and I do not know that I understand it all yet, for these events all took place in my absence. The other report is that I have been the means of saving General Santa Anna. That man was saved by Gen. Sam. Houston, as you know. better than I do, and was used by him to procure the Armistice, or arrangement of 22d. April by which I am told orders were issued by Santa Anna to Filisola-hc was also saved by the Cabinet of Texas subsequently, and treaties made with him. I disapprove of all these measures--The first I think was almost ruinous to Texas for it saved the balance of the Mex- ican Army, and the other I think was wrong in principle, and more so in the mode or manner of using Santa Anna If the principle was adopted at all of using Santa ·Anna for the public good of Texas, on the basis'of saving his life, the only use that could or ought to have been made of him in my opinion was with the iJ. S. Govt. and not by an armistice or a treaty- An application from Santa Anna to that Govt. to mediate between Mexico and Texas, on the basis of a recog- nition of the independence of the latter, in all probability would have led to a correspondence on the subject between the U. S. Govt. and that of Mexico- If Santa Anna's friends or party had remained in power, they would no doubt have come to an arrangement through the Mediation of the U. S.- If his party had lost their influence, no good would have re- sulted, and we should still have kept Santa Anna a close prisoner, and all the bad effects of attempting to liberate him by the treaty with him would have been avoided- I expressed this opinion to Mr Burnet and other mem- bers of the Govt. and asked whether Santa Anna had ,~Titten to the U. S. Govt.- The answer was that he had not I was at Colombia a few days afterwards and saw Santa Anna,_:he said much about his desire to procure the mediation of the U. S.- I told him that no mediation would he ac- cepted by Texas, except on the basis of a recognition of our independence-- he said that was the basis on which he acted and proposed to write to Gen. Jackson- I replyed that he ought to do so, and to state in his letter his firm and full conviction that Mexico could not continue the war with Texas etc- It is certainly clear that no harm can grow out of this letter, and ad- mitting that no good results, as to Mexico, it will e,,idently do good to Texas in public estimation, elsewhere, by showing to the world that the
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