447
THE AUSTIN PAPERS
self exclusively to commercial business-the purchase of cotton· and sale of goods will present a vast field to a regular merchant who has no other "irons in the fire"-but the old farmers are suspicious and watchfull- they like [a] safe merchant, and not one who does [bus] iness on a dashing or gambling scale, [I repeat the remar?]ks in substance I made to you in a letter from [Mexico when I first?] heard you were going into the [mer- cantile?] business, and had you been governed [by th] em more closely than you have been you [w] ould have saved much loss and difficulty and injury and mortification to your friends, and to me in particular- That -cursed Monclova trip of yours has indeed been a curse to you and to me -and to the country and to everybody else. •I am trying to banish even the recoJlection of it from my mind, and when I fu'ly recover my health, hope shaJI be able to do so.- In future I never mean to speak of it or allude to it, if I can avoid it- I have cursed it in so many forms and shapes that my anger is becoming almost exhausted and will, I sincerely hope, finaJly wear away, Williams you have wounded me very deeply, but you -are so deeply rooted in my affections, that with all your faults, you are at heart too much like a wild and heedless brother to be entirely banished- Come home Your old friend s F. AUSTIN [Addressed:] Mr. Sam M. Williams Cou of H. H Williams·Baltimore
SANTA ANNA TO AUSTIN
Confidential
Orozimbo Nov 5 th /36
MY MUCH ESTEEMED SIR, Through the channel of your Commissioners-and by my conversation with you on the 2d. inst. I have manifested to you the importance of my visit to Washington City--to regulate the most effectual mode of terminat- ing the Texian Question-and as time is passing without any definith•e ac- tion-when it is most precious-I am desirous that you who are so deeply interested in the welfare of this country-should expedite the final deter• ruination of this question-Using if you should deem it advisable the fol- lowing reason....:....When the treaty of the 14th of May was entered into, it was based upon the principle that Texas should form an independent na- tion-and should acquire a legal existence by means of the acknowldge- ment of Mexico-but as that basis has been changed by the recent declara- tion of the People of Texas in favor of annexation to the U. S. of the North-it appears to me that the question is much simplified by this decla- ration of the Texians-because in future--it will appertain to the cabinet of Washington to regulate this matter-and a definitive treaty as is de- sired- The mode of effecting-this important object without loss of time
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