102
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
for some time, often weary and sleepless, and sometimes eatless. After indulging in some reminiscences of the early history of this city, and passing a handsome eulogy on the enterprise and energy of our citizens, the Governor adverted to the financial condition of the State. Ten years ago, the Treasury of Texas was overflowing with a surplus of ~5,000,000, but that surplus had disappeared, and we are now hampered with debt. This debt must be met and provided for. There must be no repudiation. It had been the proud boast of Texians, that theirs was the only government which had ever come out of the struggle for liberty with financial honor, and a paid up debt of revplution. The Gov- ernor then reviewed the history of the transfer of the Santa Fe Territory to the General Government, by which the United States agreed to take our land and pay our debt, also the part that he and General Rusk took in the matter. It had been contended that Texas had no title to Santa Fe. A title had been manufactured at San Jacinto. We had occupied .Santa Fe, after a fashion; had planted cannon there which were never brought away, and we had had three hundred good men destroyed there. But it was well sold at any rate, the State of Texas realizing more than $12,000,000 from her claim. The General then adverted to newspaper attacks which had been made upon him. He had been charged with any number of small transgressions, and some monstrous iniquities; in fact, he was the biggest rascal in the world, to believe the papers; but he was proud to say that he had never been charged even by his bitterest enemies, with dishonesty in handling public funds. It was an art that he had never learned, although he supposed that he might yet acquire it, as he lived in a sharp community, only he was afraid that he was now too old to learn new tricks. He said that he stood on the old Jackson platform, composed of only two planks-the Constitution and the Union. His policy was to husband the treasury, defend the frontier, encourage the useful arts, favor the extension of kind relations in the community, and rebuke violation of the law. In alluding to his retirement from the Senate, he said that he had been stricken down because of the best act of his life. He took it so kindly that the people got mad at themselves, because he didn't get mad himself, and so they made him Governor. The principles that he had contended for in his course on the Kansas- Nebraska bill, were endorsed the other day by the entire Demo- cratic Senate. After nine or ten years of reflection, they had
Powered by FlippingBook