418
.T}JE AUSTIN PAPERS
AUSTIN TO GAIL BORDEN, JR.
Letter from S. F. ·Austin to G. Borden,. /r. 1
MR. G. BORDEN, JR.: J)EAR SIR,-
1 have just received your letter of the 15th instant, informing me that great efforts are making to circulate reports nnd slanders, for the purpose of injuring me, at the election which is to be held on the first Monday of next month. Such things are to be expected. In all communities, there are men, who attempt to rise and effect their individual views, by trying to mislead the public. The check upon them, is the good sense and sound judgment of the people. Relying upon this check, I have not considered it necessary to notice any of the slang that has been circulated about me. I feel but little anxiety, of a personal character, whether I am elected or not. I am not a volunteer candidate, for I agreed to become one from a sense of duty, ~ecause I was solicited to do so, by persons whose opinions I could not disregard, without laying myself liable, at least in some degree, to the imputation of having shrunk from a high and responsible station, at a time when the situation of Texas was most critical, and its political affairs most difficulty. Had I refused being a candidate, I should then have been censured for abandoning, in the time of difficulty, the public affairs of a country, to which I have devoted so many years to build up and bring forward. To place before you in a succint manner, the nature of the reports spoken of by you, I will recall to your mind a few facts in relation to the past. I have been connected with the public affairs of Texas, in one way or another, for fifteen years, and under circumstances, during the whole of that period, the most difficult, perplexing and embarrassing. I was for many years the principal organ of the local administration, and of communication between the settlers of this colony, (who, be it re- membered, came direct from a free and well organised government, the United States, with all their political ideas and habits fresh upon their minds,) and, the Mexican government, which then was, as it still is, in that _state of chaos produced by a sudden transition from extreme slavery and ignorance, to extreme republican liberty. The difficulty of such a position is ~vident. The dangers of premature and ruinous collis~ons, produced by a difference of language, forms, laws, habits, etc., were almost insurmount• able. The very nature of things opened an almost boundless field for demagogues and personalities, and the country was placed, during the
1 Printed handbill.
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