WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1851
312
people of California as our equals entitled to all the benefits and privileges and blessings that we enjoy. But, what was stranger than all, he had been abused for vot- ing for the ten million proposition to Texas. It was his fate to be abused-he had been abused for everything that he had ever done for the country. But he did not look for it in this instance. He was called .a coward at the battle of San Jacinto: if he was a coward, he was a most unfortunate one, for it had been his fate, in every battle that he had ever fought, to be severely wounded. He was called a coward for the retreat from the Colorado, which proved the salvation of Texas. He had been charged with treason in endeavoring to sell Texas to England and France, when these very slanders, which he suffered to go abroad uncontradicted about his intrigues with these powers, was one of the means that hastened on the consummation of the great measure of annexation. He had been abused for vetoing the land bill, which was finally passed over his head, and which has entailed incalculable evils upon the country. He was abused for vetoing the war bill, in 1842, when it was proposed to invade Mexico. Some then thought that Texas could conquer Mexico without men or means; he thought it would require both. When Uncle Sam undertook it, it required fifty thousand men, and sixty millions of dollars. He had been abused and denounced for these and for many other things that he had done for Texas, but really he did not expect to meet abuse for his agency in the settlement of the Texas boundary question-a measure so fraught with benefits to Texas and blessings to the Union. This part of Gen. Houston's speech was very interesting. He reviewed the history of the boundary question. It was a clear elucidation of the whole subject, and was the more interesting as it disclosed much of his private history in this connection that had not been published. General Houston disposed of the Southern ultras and North- ern fanatics very summarily. He placed them in the same cate- gory-classed them together-they were governed by different sentiments, but they aimed at the same object-a dissolution of the Union. Fortunately for the country, there were but few of them in either end of the Union. The people at the North and South were satisfied with the adjustment of the slavery ques- tion. The country had nothing to apprehend from the few rest- less spirits, who were still endeavoring to keep up the agitation.
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