WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 181-1
366
of the people. We must cultivate our soil, raise our crops, rear our cattle, and everything that will make us comfortable and independent when we are at our homes. We will still be a people, if we can not be a Government, though I hope devoutly we will remain a people a~d a nation. The truth is that useless extrava- gance and the most unprincipled profligacy have characterized the present administration. Recklessness, the most palpable and barefaced, has been practiced to such an-extent that they can neither blush for their crime, nor relent at the calamities which they have inflicted upon a generous, poor, and confiding people. When things get to the worst they must mend, as the old adage goes. Our situation, if the adage is true, must soon be in a better condition. I hope this may be t.he case? I can not see how we would, or could, be in a worse condition. The sole object of--- 2 is to insure, to secure, his re-election. And the country has to pay for his experiment; but he ought not to presume too far upon the forbearance of an injured and op- pressed people. He has, as you will see by the newspaper en- closed, had recourse to novelty, as well as the ranks of his opponents, for men to sustain his pro tem situation. I have been assured that Judge Terrell3 will not accept the Secretaryship of State, as it was made without his consent or knowledge. The day was when it was reputable to hold a place in the Cabinet. Those days are gone by, and days must pass ere we shall see those times again. We are to adjourn on Thursday next, so say both Houses of Congress. God knows we are doing no good by staying here. Congress meets too often, and does too much. The printing of Congress would break any nation, and when it is done the country has paid for a beautiful batch of lawsuits! I hope to pass by you in a few days, and will call if it is in my power. SAM HOUSTON. Col. ANTHONY BUTLER. icrane, Life and Select Lite1·a1·y Remains of Seim. Hoi1ston, 137-138. Anthony Butler. See Houston to James Prentiss, June 27, 1832. Also see Jesi:e S. Reeves, Am.ericctn Diplomacy Unde1· Tyler an<l Polle, 68-69; George L. Rives, The United States an<l Mexico, 1821-1848, I, 235-261; and The Southwestern Histor-ical Quarte1·ly, XVIII, 12-17. 2Throughout the year 1840, President Lamar suffered ill health; by December of that year he was so ill that the Legislature gave him a leave of absence to seek medical treatment in New Orleans. David G. Burnet, Vice-President, became the acting president after December 13, 1840, and
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