334
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1863
will it be with the Northern army, if the worthlessness of the currency forces the Government to stint the soldier-if the pay he gets will not supply his wants or sustain his family at home? War will cease then to be a money making business. The mer- cenary soldier may still stick to the army, but the precedents are at least sufficient to make Lincoln tremble for his cause. Thus, although I do not look with confidence for these results, nor do I advance them as more than mere probabilities, they certainly indicate that there is discord and discontent in the North, and these always embarrass a cause and endanger its success. Yet I do not trust to these things, nor would I have you do so. Let us go forward, nerved to nobler deeds than we have yet given to history. Let us bid defiance to all the hosts our enemies may bring against us. Can Lincoln expect to subjugate a people thus resolved? No! From every conflict they will rise stronger and more resolute. Are we deprived of the luxuries which our enemies possess? We have learned how little necessary they are, and it is no privation to do without them. Our enemies are commencing to learn the experience we have learned in the last two years. We will soon be on equal terms. Their currency is reaching a point when intercourse with the world without will be of little benefit to them. Then the world will see that the soldiers of liberty will prove their devotion to her cause, while the hirelings of the miserably tyrant will abandon him when their service fails to meet a recompense. Fellow-citizens, a few months ago gloom prevaded every house- hold in Texas. Amid our rejoicings over the victories of our gallant armies abroad, we could not forget that the foe was upon our soil, that our coast was abandoned to his ravages, and that while the Texian abroad proudly led the van, the Texian at home yielded to the advance of the foe. Sorrowing, yet not despairing, our people saw Galveston, Sabine, and most of the Gulf coast, at the mercy of our enemy. It was at such a time that the present heroic leader of our troops, General J. B. Magruder, came. His presence, the dashing courage which was his characteristic, and the success which had crowned most of his efforts, inspired confi- dence. Yet many doubted. He did not doubt the Texian. Like the bursting of a bomb was his dash upon the foe. What skill, what intrepidity characterized his movements. With what fidelity and heroism was he seconded by the army of Galveston and Sabine. The Texian has dispelled the terror of the gunboat.
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