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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1857
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I have been induced to regard him as a man of forecast, or he may have remembered the maxim of Hudibras, in which he says:
"He who fights and runs away, Can live to fight another day; . But he who is in battle slain, Can never live to fight again."
The fifth and sixth paragraphs of Mr. Lamar's letter form a most veritable contradiction not to be gotten over. He sets out to give a dialog between Gen Houston and himself, in which the Gen. aslcecl him if he could whip the whole a1·my by himself? Then, he details other matters of the conversation; knew Hous- ton's statements were contra1-y to facts; scarcely acquainted with Houston; he droppecl the subject. Who can but admire the mod- esty of this Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, who is scarcely ac- quainted with Gen Houston, yet uses insolence of the grossest character to him! He went to Col. Wharton though, and when the Col. asked him if he thought Houston would fight, he replied, · "He says he will." How laconic his reply, and in such harmony with his previous paragraph. Mr. Lamar again says, "At the very moment when we were all preparing for battle, and the lines were actually forming, Gen Houston came to me, and said in a whining and despairing tone, 'Col. Lamar, do you really think we ought to fight?' " The Colonel's reply was of that sententious and terse character that always distinguishes great military men. He says, "My reply.was: General Houston, your question comes too late. What did we come here for but to fight?" This great man must have been cruelly annoyed by Gen. Houston; for when he offered his advice to the General, he would not take it, and when the General asked his opinion, he ·would not give it, but snubbed the poor General, and when the General spoke to him in a "whining tone?" [sic] What a vein of the Bonaparte runs through this Mr. Lamar! He had been in Texas with the army less than ten days, and he all at once bursts into the sage and hero! I will now clear up all the muss of heroism,, heresay, he said so and so, and I repliecl, and then "as I was scarcely acquainted with General Houston, I dropped the subject," and "the like of that and sich [sic] ! ! !" Early on the morning of the 21st of April, I sent for Colonel Forbes, Commissary General of the army, and directed him to procure two good axes, and place them at the root of a certain
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