330
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1839
government, that when we would sit in judgment upon the policy of that time, we should carry our minds back, and decide the question upon the facts as they then existed. Under this situation of affairs, the convention assembled; and it was not strange that apprehension and caution should have been the order of the day. It is recollected by more than one member upon this floor, that when the convention was called to order, that the presiding officer, on putting his hand into his pocket for a paper, drew forth a horseman's pistol, and laid it upon the speaker's table. He mentioned this anecdote to show the feeling which prevailed among the members. But they had assembled for the purpose of forming and organizing a govern- ment.- The people expected it of them, and they were compelled to stay until they had accomplished it. They could not go home and say to the people, we cannot adopt a form of government-- the country already filled with anarchy, would have been ruined by such a course. But for all the necessity for grave delibera- tion, they remained in session but seventeen days; they assembled on the 1st, and on the 17th of March they left Washington: how did they lea"."e? It had been frequently described, and he would not repeat it here. But one thing he would say, that the constitu- tion submitted to the people was not the one adopted by the con- vention. The const_itution was not engrossed previous to the adjournment, but all the papers were thrown into a box and carried by the clerks to Groce's Retreat where they attempted to make out a correct copy of the Constitution. When a question arose as to what composed a part of the Constitution, the Clerks took a vote among themselves, and a majority either adopted or rejected it. In this way articles which had been rejected by the Convention had been adopted by the Clerks, and incorporated into the body of the Constitution. He did not mention this as a censure upon the Clerks, he believed they had done the best they could under the circumstances, for the country. But to explain things which would be inexplicable, if found in a constitution adopted in an ordinary way by a grave deliberate assembly. This constitution was submitted to the people, and the necessity of having some form of government, induced them to ratify it, and it became the organic law of the land. But many of the members of the Convention whose name was attached to that instrument had never seen it. When he saw what purported to be the Con- stitution, six months after the Convention, he was very much astonished to find his name attached to it. He had never placed
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