TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
74
.[Note, Page 3] The Boston -papers have the chapters with quite a compliment to the author. [Note, Page 4 J "Dont leave.this about- I dont wish Mr Ransom to be familiar at all with my sentiments in Texas. &C" Burn it I No. 1413 1839' Aug. 19, M. B. LAMAR, HOUSTON, [TEXAS], TO T. J. GREEN AND OTHERS, VELASCO, TEXAS 11 Reply to the foregoing.rn Houston 19th Augu~t 1839. Gentlemen,- Your letter of the 14th instant,1,2 inviting me in behalf of the citizens of Velasco, t.o a public dinner, affects me most sensibly. It affects me by exciting emotions of gratitude for the personal kindness which it breathes; and it inspirits nie to continued efforts and a more cheerful zeal in the discharge of my official duties by the approval which it be- stows upon the leading policy of my administration, and my general character as a public functionary. To the feeling with which you have vindicated me against the asper- sions of my enemies, I cannot respond in a spirit less decisive than your own. That I have not escaped the assaults which seem inseparable con- comitants of offices is known tp all; but but [sic] that the abuse so lavishly bestowed has sprung from the dissapointed hopes of ambition and avarice, rather than from any evils which have flowed or are likely to result to the nation, is a truth. I believe, pretty generally under- stood and appreciated by that portion of the community upon whose stability and morals the prosperity and happiness of the country will have to rest. The esteem of good and estimable men is my highest happiness in private life; and the approbation of my public acts by the patriotic and the wise is the only reward that I can enjoy or desire for the painful solicitude and perpetual toil of official station. When blest with thBse, I never can complain, whatever else betide. Give me the support of the brave, the virtuous and the enlightened portion bf my fellow-citizens- let me have the confidence of those who love their countrv-who are vigilant to guard her rights-and I heed not the malice of the wicked, nor all the slander which the profligate can pour upon me. The efforts which have been made, and are still making to blast my reputation as a man and to render my administration unacceptable and odious to the people, are rapidly recoiling upon the instigators, and cannot fail, sooner or later, to provoke the chastisement of public scorn. That a few of my official acts, unimportant in their nature, _have been disap- probatecl by some of the good citizens of this Republic, is more than probable-at least it is natural that it should be so-but that I c·an "Copy. In no. 361, p. 237. Printed in the Telegraph and Texas Regi,ster, Oct. 2, 1839, vol. V, no. 11, p. 3. 12 No. 1404.
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