61
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
to do from time to time, unless you notify me that you will render me redress for the repeated acts of ungentlemanly conduct of which you have been guilty towards myself, to gratify a pitiful spirit of revenge which originated in a circumstance that oc- curred on board a steamboat, at one of the wharves of this town in the early part of the year 1840, before you were nom- inated for the presidency, which you doubtless well recollect, and which you were not man enough to resent at the time, but waited until you were elected by the good and over-confiding people of Texas to the highest office within their gift, which you prostituted in so many instances to gratify your craven and vindictive propensities. E.W. Moore [to] General Sam Houston." Now, it is very well known that I had quit bar-rooms in 1845, and I only patronized them in a small way before that. "In public bar-rooms, in the streets, and even in the presence of ladies." That was a most inelegant thing on my part! Surely I ought never to have abused him before ladies. 'Why, sir, for me to depreciate such a gallant gentleman in the presence of ladies, after his great feat of dodging cannon balls, would not be exactly clever on my part. Mark you, he says, he would have demanded satisfaction from me, "but for the well known fact that you have refused to render' satisfaction to General Lamar, Judge Burnett, and Doctor Archer, for gross and flagrant acts of injustice." I never had a correspondence with any of these gentlemen, I believe, except official with Judge Burnett. I never had a correspondence with General Lamar, or Mr. Archer, or a quarrel with one of the three named. To be sure, they did not like me, but that was their fault, not mine. I will avail myself of this occasion now to declare that I never made a quarrel with a mortal man on earth; nor will I ever do anything to originate a quarrel with any man, woman, or child living. If they quarrel with me, it is their privilege; but I shall try to take care that they do me no harm. General Lamar, of whom he speaks, was the last President of Texas, before myself. Another gentleman referred to, Mr. Burnett, was President ad inte1im, but Congress did not give him legislative functions; they only gave him judicial and administrative duties, and kept back the legislative functions, though he monopolized them all in the gross. I have nothing, however, to say against him. This letter proceeds: "It is well known that you submitted to be thus disgraced by Colonel Jordan in the town of Austin."
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