WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1836
472
it will be for the country. _If these are evils and we are liable to them, let us work while it is yet day, for the night cometh when no man can work. I would respectfully suggest that some plan be devised by which the country can be relieved of this useless burthen. If they were sent home through the Consul at New Orleans, I should not apprehend much accession to the army of Mexico, or that they would again march to Texas! They are generally muleteers and packmen. It is a quality of our nature to avoid the contemplation of unpleasant conseque·nces, with the hope that the probable evils V•lhich threaten us may not come upon us, and in fact they are often produced from this very cause, when they might have been averted by enquiring into the causes which must produce them. The Honorable Congress must be aware that the Executive of this Government has no funds or means at his disposal, but those which are placed within his control by Congress; nor can he be made accountable for failing to perform duties, when the want of means may render the attainment of any object or measure out of his power. Congress is bound to provide means for the subsistence and clothing as well as the safe- -keeping of the prisoners, and when they are placed at the dis- position of the Executive he will be responsible to his con- stitutents and the laws of the country for their application. The officers as well as the members of the guard, who have had charge of Gen. Santa Anna have complained to me of their wants and destitution. The guard are without blankets, and almost naked-without shoes, and nothing but beef to subsist on. Gen. Santa Anna and his aids have thus far been supported at private expense, as well as the board, by the officer in command; who has generously expended his own funds, whenever he could do so, for the comfort of the guard or the relief of the prisoners. This cannot long be the case. If Gen. Santa Anna were permitted under a sa,f e and con- fidential escort to proceed to Washington City, I should un- hesitatingly concur in the measure as one of sound policy at this time, and which would obtain for us, in conexion with other means, the very objects most desirable and beneficial to Texas.
Powered by FlippingBook