WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
76
officer. The book consists of four hundred and eighty-four pages, and yet I find my name recorded in it one hundred and seventeen times. Is it done for the purpose of exhibiting the truth of his- tory to posterity? No, sir; for it contains but one truthful fact in the whole volume, and that is in the outset. The individual by whom this book was composed has filled it with slander; but it contains in the outset one fact. It says that Stephen F. Austin was the father of Texas. That is a designation justly accorded ·to him, as will be testified to by every man who is acquainted with the primitive history of Texas, or its progress, as long as he lived. Stephen F. Austin is entitled to that honor. It is due to his memory that it should be acknowledged. It is due to his friends, to whom his memory is most dear and sacred. That is the only truth contained in the volume where facts are perverted and history distorted. Sir, posterity will never know the worth of Stephen F. Austin, the privations which he endured, the enter- prise which he possessed, the undying zeal, his ardent devotion• to Texas and its interests, and his future hopes connected with its glorious destiny. But, sir, I must pass on. Much has been said here, Mr. President, of filibustering. It has been a theme largely dwelt upon, not only in the Senate of the United States, but throughout America and Europe. I will give you some idea of the extent to which certain individuals carried filibustering in Texas. The book on which I propose to comment, on its title page announces itself to be "The History of Texas, Mexico, and the United States, by General Thomas J. Green"; that is what he calls himself. His fellow citizens in Texas had a sobriquet for him which I will not mention now, but I will by and by. [T. Jeffer- son Dog Green.] I wish to show who this "general" is. In 1836 the boundary of Texas was declared, by an act of the Legislature of that Republic. The first constitutional President, then in the discharge of his duty, drew up a description of the boundary as it had been pointed out after the battle of San Jacinto, but had not yet become a law. He drew up the law, and gave it to the President of the Senate, by whom it was given for presentation to an accidental Senator, this identical Thomas Jef- ferson Green. He introduced it, and it became the law of Texas. In 1842, a campaign was ordered to Mexico after two successive invasions of Texas by marauding parties, in order to let Mexico know that the Texians could cross the Rio Grande and inflict annoyance and molestation on them as well as they had done on Texas; and it was thought that as soon as they were aware that :::: -
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