416
THE AUSTIN PAPERS
there will be much unanimity about any thing in a new community like •this, where aspirants are numerous and where conflicting hopes and pro- jects of the future, or fancied complaints and misconstructions of the past, furnish so many materials for demagogues to distract or mislead the public mind. I have been connected with the public affairs of this country in one way or another for fifteen years, and under circuinstances, during the whole of that period, the most difficult, perplexing, and embarrassing- With more power than ought to have been given to one man, I was for many years in the first stages of the settlements, the main organ of the local administration and of communication between the settlers (who came direct from a free and-organized Govt.- The U. S. with all their habits fresh) and the Mexican Govt., which then was, as it still is, in that state of Chaos, produced by the sudden transition from extreme spanish slavery and ignor• ance, to extreme republican liberty. You Can at once see the difficulty of such a position, liable to jealousy and suspicion from both sides, it made me a mark for all to shoot at- our land laws have always been complex, and their execution difficult- Our political horizon has always been clouded, and public sentiment much divided etc It has been under such circumstances that I have been connected with the affairs of Texas I mention these things to give you some faint idea of the difficulties of the past, and as an explanation of the assurance that I am truly uneasy and sick of every thing connected with public affairs- I shall·however never shrink from them so long as the country is in an unsettled state, and hence it is, that I am now before the public a candidate for president. Dr B. T. Archer has assured me that you would not refuse to lend the aid of your well stored mind, in regulating our public affairs, in the event of your determining to settle here permanently-- I have in consequence assured him, and now say the same to you, that I should esteem it a great public good to Texas if you will accept of a station in the cabinet councils of Texas- If I am elected, my favorite object will be annexation to the· U. S. on fair and liberal terms, that effected, I am determined never again to have any thing to do with public affairs if I can avoid it- Now sir I am emboldened by my friend Dr B. T. Archer to ask you whether you will come on without delay and occupy the station of secretary of state and as such conduct the negotiation with the U. S. for our admis• sion etc etc provided however always, that the sovereigns elect me • In the event of coming on you might perhaps obtain some important in- formation as to the difficulties to he surmounted and the best mode of get- ting over or around them etc, Also it may be important for you to know that we are totally destitute of all books of forms or of state papers, diplo- matic history or correspondence-in short we have nothing of the Kind-no books of reference of any description
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