WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
81
any previously entered into. But these contracts can prove of no immediate avail to our finances. If the Executive had been invested with authority to have dis- posed of a portion of the public domain, there is little doubt that it might have been employed with great advantage to the present and prospective condition of the currency. The policy of hus- banding means for the use of posterity cannot be justified in the present emergency of our affairs. If we are enabled to leave them in the enjoyment of independence, and free from pecuniary in- volvement, it is all that we should desire. Even supposing our national debt to e~ceed twelve millions of dollars, our means are more than sufficient to pay the whole; and, in a state of peace, our impost duties, alone, would be adequate to defray all the necessary expenses of government, without the necessity of resorting to oppressive taxation. Our vacant lands can be applied to the liquidation of every farthing of our national liabilities, and a large portion still remain untouched. A matter of the liveliest interest to the community is the regu- lar transportation of the mails; but for want of appropriations by the last Congress their transportation throughout the country entirely ceased. Communication between different sections and the circulation of intelligence have been wholly obstructed. On account of this state of things the Executive has found himself greatly embarrassed in disseminating as well as in receiving cor- rect and speedy information, for he has not one dollar at his dis- position for the employment of expresses, even under the most urgent circumstances. During the late excitement rumor was generally the basis of impressions and action, which, as was to be expected, not unfrequently produced unpleasant consequences in the community. Owing to the suspension of the mails, the laws and journals of the last session of Congress have not been distributed; and it may be remarked, that, for some cause, unknown to the Execu- tive, an important portion of the public printing has not yet been executed. In the recent advance of the Mexicans upon Bexar, apprehen- sion for the safety of the government archives at the city of Austin was so great, that all business in the public offices was suspended, and those in charge of them deemed it a matter of prudence and security to secrete the public records in the earth; so that if the enemy should advance upon and sack the place, they might not be so liable to destruction..
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