WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1839
315
ON THE REMOVAL OF THE CAPITAL FROM AUSTIN 1 [ Monday, December 2, 1839 Tuesday, December 3, 1839 ] The House met, pursuant to adjournment, a quorum being present, the House proceeded to business. The debate on the bill for the temporary location of the Seat of Government, was continued, when Mr. Houston rose and strenuously advocated the bill. [The manuscript of the commencement of Mr. Houston's first speech having been lost, or carried away from the editor's room by some person, we are compelled to give a brief sketch of it from recollection.]:! MR. Houston commenced by alluding to the fraud which he said had been practised upon the members of the east, in the location at Austin. 3 He spoke of the wildness of the country, and the difficulty of procuring subsistence at this place; told an anecdote of an old gentleman, whom he had seen in Alabama, and who had visited this city, who had said it was high up the Colorado, forty miles beyond civilization! said he had never heard the sweet voice of woman, nor the prattling of children, north, or west of this place. He said that the seat of government had been removed many times, and that once its removal had been "a little too pre- cipitate!" He alluded to the removal of the provisional govern- ment from Washington in 1836. But, said Mr. H., we have been told of the wealth and beauty of the valley of the Colorado; he admitted that there was some force in the description, but continued: her bags of gold and her bunches of diamonds, would be dear, at the cost of being put up in this frontier city. Go to the thickly settled parts of the country, and you might lessen the salaries of public officers, and thus save the money of the people. He believed that to the people this question was expressly delegated; carrying out that view, he had vetoed the location on the Eblin league, thinking that they alone had the right of location. 4 But the ensuing congress, it appeared, had not looked over the record, and were guilty of the same offence, and refused to refer to the people a question that should have been referred to them long ago. He said there was no danger in it; if the people trust us, we should not fear to trust them. He frequently mingled with them; he found them just, and he was not afraid
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