302
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1838
Government to have attempted to render protection to the sur- veyors, would have been ridiculous. There was neither men nor means, and if there had been, the Executive had no authority to employ them for such purposes. Nor would it have been just to involve the treasury of the country by employing the means of the community generally, for the purposes of individual speculations and private benefit. There can no doubt remain, but what the system which has been pursued relative to the surveying and location of lands, has involved the country in the calamities which have heretofore, and still con- tinue to visit our frontiers by harrassing and destroying the in- habitants. It is referred to the honorable Congress to determine what measures will necessarily be adopted to protect the inhab- itants and restore the peace to our borders. The Executive will respectfully suggest at least for some time to come, that restric- tions should be laid upon all surveying beyond the limits of the settlements, and that the enterprize which has heretofore been employed to individual benefit, should be directed in some chan- nel that will enable the Executive to repel the aggression of the Indians and chastise them for all wanton outrages so far as the energies of the nation can be combined. The honorable Congress cannot eschew the important truth, that independent of all appre- hension of Mexican invasion, our country is approaching to a solemn and vital crisis, and unless measures of a most energetic character, are adopted, and such as will restore the functions of command to the ·President, the appropri:~.te and constitutional head of the Government. We can hope for nothing but disaster, in its military operations, and a total disregard and prostration of the civil institutions of the country.. How can a Maj. General, acting ·upon the extreme northern frontier of the country in person command, and to whom all the defence of the country have been delegated, know the wants of the upper Brazos, of Colorado, of San Antonio, of Nueces and Copano or of Corpus Christi? Had the power remained with the Executive, and his constitutional rights had not been trampled down by the last Congress, the country might have entertained some hope of being in a defensible position. The constitution intended that he should be held responsible for the national defence, at the same time it contemplated he should have the means of defending the nation, having been deprived of these facilities and seeing them deposited in the hands of a Major General, he is constrained, in obedience to his obligation to the·constitution, to contemplate in the agony
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