25
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 184-7
Texas. Ex-President Tyler thereby attained the object which he desired; and so soon as Texas was thus compromitted, he dis- avowed the acts of his minister, after having deluded Texas into a step which she otherwise ought not and would not have taken. Such conduct as this was certainly a "flirtation" with Texas, and one that subjected her to great peril; for in a letter of Mr. Howard,3 disavowing the pledges of Mr. Murphy, he uses this remarkable language, by direction of the then Secretary of State: "If, however, the recommencement of this conflict has been owing to negotiations between the U. S. and Texas, and if the U. S. have given assurances to extend to Texas the aid which the present emergency requires, by which the undersigned [Mr. Howard] supposes is meant military aid in repelling the antici- pated invasion by Mexico, the obligations thus incurred ought to be, and he doubts not will be observed by his government." This letter was dated 6th August, 1844, several months after the treaty had been rejected. The Ex-President is not mistaken when he supposes that the circumstances in which I had been placed previous to my emigra- tion to Texas should to some extent have informed me of the duties and powers of the President of the U. S. He will admit at the same time that the posi~ion of the chief magistrate of Texas was not that of conscience keeper of the President of the United States; and as I was acting on behalf of Texas, and bar- gain was to be made between the two countries, I was disposed to obtain for her all the advantages of security and protection. At a subsequent period to the disavowel of the pledges given by Mr. Murphy to the Texas government, Ex-President Tyler must have given the constitution a new reading or forgotten the "restrictions imposed oy the constitution upon its functionaries"; for we find that after the disavowel by Mr. Nelson of Mr. Murphy's pledges given to Texas, a subsequent Secretary, under the eye of the President, gave to Messrs. Van Zandt and Hender- son, previous to entering upon negotiations, this assurance. After speaking of the army and navy of the U. S. and the active corre- spondence of their commanders with the President of Texas and the expected invasion of Texas by Mexico, he says: . "That the President will in that event send a message to Congress, informing them of the fact, and request Congress to adopt, as speedily as possible, such measures as may be necessary
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