WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1853
382
amount, and being opposed to the Executive, sought every pos- sible means to embarrass him; and instead of requiring the taxes to be paid as under the previous existing laws, they repealed those laws for the collection of taxes, or postponed their operation for six months, so as to depreciate the value of, by lessening the demand for, this currency, and thereby to embarrass the Gov- ernment in such a way that it could no longer exist. However, the good fortune that presided over Texas, and directed her path, did not desert her. The currency came up again, and was at par; but after a long session of the Texas Congress it fell to fifty cents, and even as .low as thirty-seven and a half cents; but it rose again, and continued at par, in spite of all the combina- tions and machinations of faction, corruption, and treason. When that administration ended, in 1844, the Government of Texas had not only accumulated in the treasury $25,000 of par funds in gold and silver, but it had paid all just and unavoidable demands to foreign nations, and to support the Santa Fe and Mier prisoners in Mexico, and to procure their release, not less than $70,000. So that the Texas debt, with the exception of $2,500,000 accrued between the years 1838 and 1841, not a solitary cent accrued in the administration which lasted from the end of 1841 to 1844. It will thus be seen the debt of Texas did not grow out of her necessities, and that the present creditors who come forward here with their demands, and who, according to their saying, helped Texas in her hours of trial and threw their money into her lap, instead of doing that, threw it into the lap of speculators. Not a dollar of it went to Texas which will not only be paid in par funds, but which will also, I trust, be paid with interest, and at a premium. There were bonds issued,-let them be paid to the letter and to the last farthing; but let those who have accumulated these obligations by speculation, and that, too, of a most enormous character, receive, like Shylock, their "pound of flesh," or two pounds if you please, but "not one drop of Christian blood." Sir, if these men were the assignees, or the descendants of Shylock, they would reflect just credit upon his reputation. [Laughter] But, Mr. President, it is thought that it is immoral in Texas- that it is not a clever thing in her not to pay her debts. Now, I should like to ascertain by what standard of morality we are to arrive at the adjustment of her debts? Is it that standard of morality that pays a man not only what he has given, but a hundred per cent. in addition to that? Or is it the standard it is proposed to establish here, that when a man has given three
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