WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1855
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will not do so, until releases from the last dollar of indebtedness are filed. I think it highly complimentary that the United States, considering the bad character of Texas, should make so liberal an offer. Were I acting as an individual in such a case, I would accept the bill. You have asked me to express my opinion on this subject, and I freely state it is to the best interest of Texas to accept the bill. Gen. Houston then proceeded to comment upon the state system of Internal Improvements. He then took a retrospective view of the history of the Railroads in Texas. The first charter was granted 14 years ago and up to the present time, 22 miles have been built. How many years would it take to build the 10,000 miles of railroad contemplated by the companies now chartered, going at the rate of 22 miles in 14 years? This showed that a better system was wanted, but it was not the "State System." Gen. Houston said, "I have great respect for Gov. Pease. He is an able., honest, correct, straight-forward, patriotic citizen, and I too shall vote for him; but I do not wish to be understood as endorsing his State System of Internal Improvement. I want no amendments ·to the constitution. I want no convention, who after assembling together under the pretence of considering a few proposed changes in the constitution, will patch it up with thou- sands of absurdities. I do not wish to see it torn asunder in order to allow a horde of speculators who never felt a patriotic impulse, an opportunity to swindle the State." Gen. Houston ridiculed the ideas of the friends of the State system. Among them was a gentleman who resides at Galveston whom he can designate by no other name than Locomotive. Rail- roads and locomotives puffing and blowing, spring up all around him. He can build railroads, (all centering at Galveston, of course,) in no time. It may be expected that he will soon com- mence an air line to the moon, and in this, perhaps, he will be successful, as his ideas are all "moonshine." Gen. Houston also denied that the corporate system had been fairly tested, and neither could the Pacific railroad be called a failure. Responsible men have been kept out of the field by the maneuverings of swindlers. The Walker and King company had not secured the contract, but they had kept bona fide men out of the way. Gen. Houston said he was prepared to prove that the Walker and King company were not worth $2,000, and that too by their own admission. It was a bogus company, and bogus means
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