WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
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humanity is. Till we have higher guarantees than we now have, or have ever had, I will never trust them with power which shall place them beyond the control of this body. · Mr. Bradbury. I would like to ask if the honorable Senator from Texas intends to state that he waited for the example of England, when he was instumental in establishing a republican form of government in Texas? Mr. Houston. In pecuniary matters alone; not in politics. I have not commended her political course as worthy of imitation; nor have I thought it a fit example for us to follow. But as we have done it recently in some things, I did not know but it might be as well to do so in this case. Certainly •the English Treasury is as well guarded as that of France, with its board of accounts. 1 Cong1·essional Globe, XXI, 972-973. These remarks were made relative to a Board of Accounts Bill.
To HENDERSON YOAKUM 1
Washington, 14th May, 1850. My Dear Colonel. That you may not think me most abominably lazy, and because it will gratify me to tell you anything that will render food for reflection, I will write you a letter, the length of it depending upon my being interrupted very soon. I will send you some papers by which you will see how the cat jumps. The President and Cabinet have been prodding at Clay and he knowing it, has determined to oust the Cabinet and make poor old Zac come to his feet, or disgrace him. If such a thing can yet be done. The members of the Cabinet once belonged to Clay, and he will not excuse them for their defection. Johnson~ was an original Taylor man, and he alone. Clay, you know is elegantly vindictive, and never forgives or spares an enemy; so long as they are in position. There is no doubt but what the President and Cabinet are opposed to Mr. Clay's report and the move pro- posed for compromise. They are an impatient set of men and doomed by fate for disgrace. Taylor, I think, is worse off than Mr. Tyler ever was, so far as I can understand the position of both, in the darkest days of the latter. Tyler had some intelli- gence and mind-the President would not rank high in any class of business men. I do not know one friend of Gen. Taylor, or rather the Cabinet, unless it is Truman Smith,3 and possibly Bell" and Dawson 6 of the Senate. They were leaning that way when it
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