WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1852
368
the Month of May, for Surgical, as well as Medical aid. On ·my arrival I met a number of Texians there, and they requested me to become a candidate for the P1·esidency. This, I positively refused to do. From that time up to within fourteen days of the election, I refused to let my name be used, nor would I, if elected consent to serve in the office; Genl Austin, and Gov. Smith were the Candi~ates, and with these Gentlemen my relations, were most kind. It was not a desire to obtain the office of President, which ultimately caused me, to let my name be used, but there were two parties in Texas, which were known as the "Austin" and "Wharton Parties"-! intend no disparage- ment, to either of the distinguished Gentlemen, or to their friends, but it is necessary thus to describe the condition of the political elements, then in Texas. Govr Smith was the ostensible head of the "Wharton Party." 2 So far as I could judge the parties were pretty equally balanced. In this posture of affairs, I was firmly impressed with the belief, that if either of the Gentlemen should be elected, it would be next to an impossibility to organize and sustain a Government, as whoever he might be, he would be compelled to fill all the offices with his own friends, and those of the opposite feelings, would of course oppose the administration, which in the then condition of the country, could only be sustained by the united efforts of the Community. Not being identified with either of the Parties, I believed, I would be enabled to consolidate the influence of both, by harmonizing them so as to form and sustain an administration, which would triumph over these difficulties, attendent upon the outset of the Constitutional Government in Texas. The first thing which I did, after coming into office, was to tender to Genl Austin, the Head of the State Department, which he readily accepted. Throughout our intercourse, whether private, or official, we were cordial and harmonious, so far as I could judge. When he was so unexpectedly called from us, I regarded it as the greatest misfortune, and calamity, that the country had ever sustained. Had he lived, I am well convinced that he would have been elected President in 1838, and we should have escaped all the Misfortunes, which befell us, from the close of 1838 to 1841. When the Melancholy event of Genl Austins death was an- nounced to me, I could not realize it, and I immediately repaired to the scene of his decease, nor did I cease to concern myself about his remains, until I saw them placed in the grave at Mr Penys.
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