WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
118
vouchers on file in the Comptroller's Office will be deemed suffi- cient, the original being a portion of the Archives of the Office; and also, whether Drafts upon the Collectors of the Ports of New York and New Orleans can be obtained in amounts of $5,000 and $10,000? His Excellency desires explicit instructions at the hands of the War Department, that the Collection of the money due Texas may not be delayed. E. W. Cave, Secretary of State.
1 Executive Reco,·ds, 1859-1861, p. 100, Texas State Library.
To A. DALY 1
Austin, August 14th, 1860. My Friend, Your favor has been received and considered. I had not failed to look over the field in the present canvass for President. My letter to J. Carroll Smith shows my position and leaves my friends at liberty to act as they please. It was writ- ten to place myself in a proper position before the world; this is now done and I feel at rest. I had no hand in producing the present state of things. So far as the Democratic party is concerned, I can only say, that all its troubles and distractions grow out of the passage of the Nebraska Bill and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and that Breckinridge and Douglass formed part of the caucus of seven who concocted the measure, and procured Mr. Dixon of Kentucky to introduce the proposition to repeal the compro- mise. Now, all this I know, and the calculation was to reelect Mr. Pierce, so as to -make the South a Unit and with it to carry Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, so that Mr. Pierce would come in without New York. In all this Mr. Breckinridge and Mr. Douglass united. I opposed it as destructive of the Democratic party and dangerous to the South and the Union. I was, by both these men, and all the administration pack, set upon and denounced. I then declared that I would never vote for a man who had taken part in that nefarious measure against the home of my family and the land of my adoption. Now, in all this how could I do otherwise than remain neutral, between the men now in the field? What would it ·avail if I should come out and cry Huzza for Breckinridge, when if he were to
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