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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
182
dignity of State, they will not make examples of more of them than is needful, but I am fearful that, in view of the great offense, examples may be multiplied. I trust they will be confined only to flagrant offenders. I have information in relation to proceedings that have taken place at Santa Fe, and it is certainly of the most remarkable character. It comes indorsed by the Executive, for it is embodied in the information given in his message upon a call of this body for information. It consists of extracts from a publication made in a newspaper at Santa Fe, urging the adoption of a State Government, and assigning as a·reason therefor the wishes of the Administration. The tenor of it fixes upon the Administration the criminality of having instigated the late extraordinary move- ments at Santa Fe. The writer of the publication signs himself ..One of your Party," and says: "In this position of affairs the Administration, through a conservative principle, and with a hope of shielding our country from the calamity by which she is so menacingly assailed, calls upon us to take such decisive measures as will tend, so far as we are concerned, to achieve that object, and propose, as the only effectual means in our power, the immediate adoption of a State Constitution and form of government, with the explicit declara- tion that we are for or against slavery, and present them for the action of Congress this session. Hence it is we find ourselves placed in a very peculiar and delicate position. On the one hand we may hope, within the next three years, to get a territorial government, should the Union be undissolved; and on the other, it appears to be our imperative duty to abandon those hopes, and, for the preservation of our nationality, to assume a form of government we have always, and conscientiously, opposed as disadvantageous for us." This shows most conclusively that an influence of a controlling character was operating upon the mind of the writer. That influence could have been none other than that of the Executive of the nation, operating through the officers of the army and their employes in the country. I have been informed that more than half a million of dollars are annually expended in that vicinity, and this, with the authority of the military, among such a population as inhabits Santa Fe, is sufficient to coerce the action most desirable to the Administration. The writer of the article is deeply impressed with the necessity of action on the part of New Mexico; he was well informed, too, in relation to
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