WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
517
cabinet, and to charge it with bad faith; and, though you are pleased to commend the conduct of the illustrious Stephen F. Austin - the Father of Texas - and myself for acts of gen- erosity exercised towards you, you take care to insinuate that we only were capable of appreciating your proper merits. That you may no longer be induced to construe acts of generosity and appreciate them to the gratification of your self-complacent dis- position, I will inform you that they were acts of magnanimity characteristic of the nation to which we belong. They had noth- ing to do with your merits or demerits. The perfidy and cruelty which had been exercised towards our companions-in-arms did not enter into our calculations. Your sacrifice would not restore to our gallant companions their lives, nor to our country their services. Although the laws of war would have justified retalia- tion by your execution, yet, it would have characterized the acts of the nation as influenced by passion and revenge; and would have evinced to the world that individuals that had an influence on the destines of a people were subject to the capricious in- fluences of vengeance of which you had so recently set the ex- ample. So far as I was concerned in preserving your life and your subsequent liberation, I was only influenced by considerations of mercy, humanity and the establishment of a national charac- ter. Humanity was gratified by your preservation; the mag- nanimous of all nations would have justified your release, had they known how little your influence was dreaded by the Texians. If upon your return to Mexico, you should have power and the disposition to redeem the pledges you had voluntarily made to myself as well as to this government, of an earnest disposition to see the independence of Texas recognized by Mexico, I believe it would have a tendency to restore peace to the two nations, dimin- ish the aggregate sufferings of their citizens, and promote the prosperty of both countries. In the event you were not disposed to redeem the pledges given, but to urge the prosecution of the war by Mexico against us, I wished to evince to mankind that Texans had magnanimity, resources and confidence, suffi.cent to sustain them against all your influence in favor of their sub- jugation. Your liberation was induced by principles such as these; and, though you tendered pledges, doubtless to facilitate and procure your release, they were received but not accepted as a condition. I believed that pledges made in duress were not obligatory upon the person making them, and if you intended to exercise the
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