WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
83
In his defamation he did not confine himself to matters con- nected with the campaign, but uniformly distorted and misrepre- sented every fact connected with the history of the times. Again he says, in reference to the expedition under Colonel Snively, which had been ordered to intercept, if possible, a convoy from St. Louis to Santa Fe: "That influence which President Houston exerted in suppress- ing the national enthusiasm, was now employed in the petit lcirceny of waylaying the road, and robbing a few harmless traders of their handkerchiefs and calicoes." This was necessary in order to degrade the President to a level with himself in relation to the Loredo achievement. Then, in referring to the letter of the President to Captain Elliott, to which I have just alluded, he says: "One less acquainted with General Houston than myself might have ascribed his letter to some unaccountable misrepresentation, or to political stupidity, but knowing his undisguised malignity and cold-blooclecl vindictiveness, not only to Colonel Fisher and myself, but others of the Mier prisoners, I lost not a moment in writing to my friends in Texas for evidence of his falsehood." In another place, referring to an individual 7 whom Santa Anna released, and sent with propositions for Texas to return to her allegiance, he speaks as if the agent of Santa Anna, a liberated prisoner from Perote, should have had some connection with the President of Texas, and says: "I tell you in perfect candor, that it is worth his life, and every other person's in Texas who will dare intimate such a thing. I say again, that, notwithstanding the dolorous forebodings and infamous slanders of our country, by our drunken, opium-eating President, Texas is much stronger than ever, and neve1· will enter- tain such a proposition." "I would to God that a due regard to truth, as well as justice to the memories of these brave men, would allow me to throw the mantle of eternal darkness over the sequel; if so, I would bury this most horrible conclusion in lasting oblivion, for my country's credit. It is, however, my task to register this bloody tale, and I have no option but in truth; and when President Hous- ton has been charged as the cause of the sufferings and murder of our countrymen, for our country's honor it has been too clearly proven." "Yet these (Mier prisoners) are the men of whom President Houston caused a part to be murdered, and others to starve, by violently withholding from them the bread voted them, while he,
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