516
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1836
ever ready to propose plans and to offer his services as leader in putting them into effect. His actual personal service in Texas was more obstrep- erous than effective; nevertheless, he was a true friend of Texas, and he 1·eally served her cause well by spreading propaganda in her behalf throughout Mississippi and Kentucky. Moreover, he incurred a personal debt o{ some $40,000 in raising and equipping soldiers for the Texas service, an indebtedness for which he probably never received full reimbursement (William Kennedy, Texa~, II, 241). After he had raised his volunteer forces for the Texas Army he started for Texas on May 3, 1836, but did not arrive till July 4 (The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXI, 44-,15), too late to participate in any of the engagements of the 1836 campaign. These soldiers, however, gave Texas encouragement. On December 20 of that year Sam Houston, newly-elected President of the Republic, nominated Felix Huston for a commission as junior brigadier general of the Texas Army, and the Senate confirmed the appointment on the following day (Seci·et Journctls, 35, 40); a little later in the same year he became com- mander-in-chief of the army for a short time. This position was intended to be merely temporary, the appointment being a makeshift to hold the army in good condition during the interim between the time of Rusk's resignation of the command to accept a place in Houston's cabinet, and the appointment of a senior brigadier general to take the chief command. But Huston seems not to have understood the temporary nature of his position and felt deeply injured by the President and the Senate when Albert Sidney Johnston was sent to take .over the command of the army. Believing he would never find an opportunity to satisfy his wounded honor &nd pride in any other way, Huston challenged Johnston, the representa- tive of the President and the Senate, to a duel, although for Johnston him- self he had the highest admiration and feelings of friendship. Johnston, in duty bound, was compelled to accept the challenge, and the duel was fought on the Lavaca River, February 7, 1837; it was, perhaps, the most chivalrous duel of modern times (see the Southweste1·n Historical Quar- terly, XXX, 190-193). Johnston was seriously wounded. Felix Huston's 1.olicy was always one of aggression against Mexico. He did not believe that Mexico would ever recognize the Rio Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico, but would continue to make attacks on Texas all along the entire length of that river, so he proposed to plant a military colony of from 5,000 to 10,000 men along the Rio Grande with himself as the leader, that this organization should make an attack on Matamoras, thus preventing any contemplated advance against Texas on the part of the Mexicans. So thoroughly did he believe in his plan that he proposed to finance such a scheme on his own responsibility provided Texas would permit him to negotiate bonds for the amount of $500,000. Rusk and Gen- eral Thomas J. Green seem to have favored Huston's scheme, but Sam Houston did not approve of it, so it never materialized. In 1840, Felix Huston was in command of the Texas forces at the battle of Plum Creek; but he left Texas in the fall of that same year, and, in partnership with Sergeant S. Prentiss, established a law practice at New Orleans. In 1844, however, when the annexation question was before the people of the United States, his old interest in Texas flared up again. He declared he would make the annexation ticket elect the President, and that he would give his time and energies free in order to stump Mississippi in favor of his
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