TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
476
No. 1959 1840 Dec. 26, J. WAJ\IOCK, SHELBYVILLE, TEXAS, TO M[IRA- BEAUJ B[UONAPARTE] LAl\fAR, AUSTIN, TEXAS Application for a contract to survey a part of the Cherokee lands and for employment in the General Land Office. A. L. S. 2 p. No. 1960 [1840?, l\L B. LAMAR, HOUSTON, TEXAS] ADDRESS AT A PUBLIC DINNER 21 Gentlemen, It is with difficulty I can find expressions, which will in an:r degree convey to you, the grateful sense I entertain of the kindness which prompted the sentiment just offered by our worthy Chairman, and which has been so generously approved & responded to by this company- The approbation of those, whose opportunities have so well qualified them to judge my official acts, would of itself be sufficient to inspire in my breast, feelings of profound thankfulness and grati- ,tude; but when to that approbation of my Course as a public function- ary, avowed as it has been done on this occasion, is superadded expres• sions of so much personal kindness and good will to me as a man, I can find no language which is adequate to carry to each and every one of you, the sentiments which my heart prompts me to utter- Called by tbe probably too partial voice of my Countrymen to the helm of affairs in this our still infant Republic, at a time when the whole burthen of our Revolutionary debt was hanging over us, without a dollar in the Treasury to liquidate it, or to meet the unavoidable expenses of administering the government-at a time, when our Credit was not only greatly exhausted, but was still sinking with frightful rapidity to a state of almost hopeless prostration, without fiscal organi- zation, or other means, to revive or sustain it- At a time when with- out an Army or :Military preparation of any kind we were daily threat- ened with renewed efforts on the part of our Mexican foes to bring ue again within the pale of their despotism & misrule. At a time, when destitute of the means of protection for our suffering women and chil- dren, except so far as it was afforded by the bold but unorganized chivalry of our Countrymen, our entire frontier was exposed to, & hourly bleeding under the scourge of the Savage Tomahawk & scalping knife-and at a time too, when we were not deemed worthy to be recog- nized as a Nation by any power upon earth except our own generous fatherland-it was to be expected, that my administration would be surrounded with difficulties & obstacles, in the meeting and overcoming of which, there would be great diversity of opinion, & consequently much apparent dissatisfaction- Indeed Gentlemen, such is the con- stitution of the human mind, so variously is it operate_d upon by the contemplation of the same object, & such is the contrariety of motives which influence it in different individuals, that had we experienced a unanimity of sentiment in carrying out the complicated details of a system of Government like ours, at such a Crisis, we should have wit-
21A. Df. of James Webb.
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