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528
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842
effort may be read in detail through the letters of these men to be found in Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic C01·1·espondcnce of the Republic of Te,xas, II, 452--879, passim. Their efforts all resulted in failure. But it seems that Lamar could not learn his lesson. In 1841 he sent another agent to Mexico to negotiate for a recognition of Texan independence. This agent was Judge James Webb. The Mexican government did not even allow Webb to land at Vera Cruz. This repulse offered an opportunity-so Hamilton and Bee believed-for them again to try their hand at bribery. They both wrote to Santa Anna on the subject, Hamilton proposing that "if a treaty of peace and limitations can be made, Texas will pay five millions of dollars, which I can place in London for this object, within three weeks after receipt of the agreement together with two hundred thousand dollars, which will be secretly placed at the disposal of the Agents of the Mexican Government." (See Bee to Santa Anna, December 27, 1841; and Hamilton to Santa Anna, January 13, 1842, Niles' Register, LXII, 49-50.) Santa Anna replied, wi·iting to Bee with angry reference to the Santa Fe Expedi- tion, and to Hamilton still more violently, declaring that his offer of a bribe was "an insult and an infamy unworthy of a gentleman." See Santa Anna to Bee, February 6, 1842, and to Hamilton, February 18, 1842, Niles' Register, LXII, 50; also El Cosmovolita (Mexico City), February 26, 1842; and Gaceta del Gobierno de Zacatecas, March 10, 1842, for these letters. This correspondence had given Santa Anna a vantage point. He was so very much pleased that he had the correspondence published throughout Mexico, and in the United States; and it was seeing the letters in print that caused Houston to write the letter above, ending it with the bombastic threat that "ere the banner of Mexico shall triumphantly float on the banks of the Sabine, the Texian standard of the single star, borne by the Anglo- Saxon race, shall display its bright folds in Liberty's triumph, on the isthmus of Darien." With this exchange of compliments, the efforts at direct negotiation between Texas and Mexico came to an end. To GEORGE W. HocKLEY 1 Executive Department, City of Houston, March 22d., 1842. Hon. George W. Hockley, &c. Sir,-I have the honor to enclose for your infqrmation orders of this date for the government of Brigadier General Somervell's operations. 2 You will give such additional orders as your in- formation and judgment may suggest. I desire that an express be forwarded to San Antonio. Sam Houston 1Executive Record Boole, No. 40, p. 71, Texas State Library. 2For brief accounts of the Somervell campaign see Yoakum, History of Texas, II, 351-353, 367-370; Wooten (ed.), A Compi·ehensive Histo?iJ of Texas, I, 387-396; Brown, History of Texas, II, 216-220.
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