WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1853
460
With this I supposed you would be satisfied, or at least, with my motives, feelings, and disposition in regard to the subject of your first letter, but throughout your subsequent letters you have spoken as though you were anxious to confide in my state- ments, and principles: but you seem to hope more than to confide, in all this, however, you "intend no disrespect." I am happy that you have thus so kindly assured me; for; being of a co~1fiding disposition, I hope I may not find it difficult to rely upon your assurances of no disrespect intended. In assigning my reasons in my letter, for permitting my name to be used for the presidential election of 1836, amongst others, I supposed that if either Genl Austin or Gov. Smith should be elected, he would select his cabinet from among his own friends, etc. In this I certainly intended not the slightest reflection upon either of the gentlemen, nor did I condemn such a course, I only stated what in my opinion would be the consequence; a wise man will always confide important trusts to his friends, in preference to his opponents, for this reason, I could not doubt, but that which I apprehended would occur in the election of either of those gentlemen, I yielded the use of my name, there- fore, as I believed my not being identified with either party in their old differences would enable me to select a cabinet without regard to party; which I did. In sustaining General Austin against a charge, never implied by me, you cite a single incidence, and I think it queer that you should have done so. You refer to the selection of his staff, and you show that as one of its ten members, he selected Hon. W. H. Wharton, "a bitter opponent." I make but one reflection; if Mr. Wharton was a bitter opponent, as you say, he could not have been rendered more harmless, for the time being, than by being surrounded by the General's nine friends. You say that it was rumored that I was concerned in intrigues with the enemies of Genl Austin in 1835. I seldom notice rumors; but in this instance, as in all others charged to me of intriguing, I pronounce the charge an unadulterated falsehood, and its cir- culators unmitigated scamps. Since you have gone out of the way of your first inquiry and have taken so wide a range, I must in justice notice some facts, which I did not learn until you were pleased to impart them to me. You say that Genl Austin and Col. Wharton were recon- ciled and that the latter supported the former in the election. My-ignorance on this point is easily accounted for, for from the
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