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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1828
i:i.lluded to in the address, and so far as you were concerned, you can safely say they were not thought of." This cannot vary, either the nature of the charge contained in the address, or the propriety of my inquiry. It is not material to the issue, whether I had been sufficiently distinguished in the action to be slandered by name or generally, with my fellow soldiers-nor is it material to me, even now, whether I had a claim to a place in the wide range of that wayward fancy, which charact2rizes the anti-Jack- son manifiesto. You then add, "nor did it ever enter into my imagination, that to arraign the errors or excesses of a com- manding general, was to disparage the brave men who fought under him." Subjects of prESiclential magnitude, are doubtless, well calculated to exclude from the imagination, all matters of minor importance, which are not calculated to advance the inter- est of one man, and to destroy the well earned reputation of an- other, whose misfortune it has been to save his country from dishonor. Even truth and justice, dependent on the humble facul- ties of judgment and understanding for their existence, appear to have lost all claims to a place in the brilliancy of imagination. It is not my intention to hold you "individually responsible for the address of a convention," to a greater extent than I felt my- self warranted in doing, by the position which you occupied in relation to the convention, for whether you acted indjvidually, or in concert with others, I cannot perceive how that can change the obligation, which eternally exists, to respect the right and good name of others, whether in the social or political relations of life; and which is never violated, without incurring the repre- hension of all who are actuated by correct principles. You re- ported the address, and I had a right to suppose that you also drafted it, and presuming that you were in possession of the evi- dence, upon which it was founded, I had a right to expect that you would not withhold that evidence, which, if in existence, is due to the American people, so far as the object of the address concerns them, and is due to the officers and soldiers who were engaged in the battle of the Horse-shoe; whether militia or regu,.. lctrs; the latter of which, I presume you were not apprised of, being in the action. I cannot consider it an explanation of the passage referred to, that it "is now approved of by your most deliberate judgment." You regard it as an explanation; I esteem it as none! I addressed you first; believing you haci been deceived, and I could no [t] doubt, in the event you were, that you would take pleasure in
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