386
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 184,1
for the present. You got up a remonstrance against the Declara- tion of Independence, signed by many, and took it on with you to the Convention. You did not present it, as the declaration was already made when you arrived in Washington. But as you passed up, you called at a house on Old River, where there were several men, and when someone asked " if the members of the convention would be so rash as to declare Independence," you, Davy G. Burnet, replied, "I have no doubt of it; and if they do, and I were Gen. Santa Anna, I would destroy every man, woman, and child west of the Sabine that could jabber English." This is your amor patri.ae. This was your holy love of country. This is no idle charge; the men are living; and will attest to the truth of it, to your eternal infamy and disgrace. You prate about the faults of other men, while the blot of foul unmitigated treason rests upon you. You political brawler and canting hypocrite, whom the waters of Jordon could never cleanse from your polit- ical and moral leprosy. TRUTH. 1 The Houstonian (Houston), August 18, 1841. 2 The Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company bought out the empresario grants of Burnet, .Zavala, and Vehlein and opened a land office in New York for the sale of Texas land scrip. Many who bought this scrip were deceived into believing they were buying land in Texas. See Fiske, A Visit to Texas (1836). Fiske was one who had been deceived into believing he had purchased Texas land when he bought the scrip from the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, and makes a clear exposition of the situa- tion. BReferences found in the Telegraph and Texas Register, and other papers published in 1841, show clearly that there were, in all, five of these letters signed "TRUTH," published in both The Houstonian, and in The Civilian (Galveston), between the dates of August 16 and the last of September, 1841. Extracts from two of these articles-the two given here in full-have been found in the Colorado Gazette and Advertiser. The H cn1stonian, established as an organ to promote Houston's interests in the 1841 campaign, was a short-lived paper; it was published but a few weeks after the election, and only a few copies of this paper are now in existence. The Texas libraries have broken files of The Civilian, another Houston supporter, but only a few copies of the paper are available for the year 1841, and they do not carry the "TRUTH" letters. All of the "Publius" letters are preserved in the issues of the Telegravh ancl Texas Reu·ister from August through Sep- tember, 1841.
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