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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842
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I positively require the name of every deserter since you as- sumed command at Corpus Christi. I require the execution of every order. The Honorable, the Secretary of War has ordered that the deserters be returned to you. You know what constitutes the offence of desertion. You know the penalty and the mode of insuring it to the culprit. The law has prescribed it. I expect it to be executed. The cases of conviction for capital crimes, the· President has the right of approval. He will always exercise it with justice to the culprit, and with a due regard to the welfare of the country. Sam Houston 1 Executive Reco1·d Book, No. 40, p. 117, Texas State Library. See Houston to James Davis, May 5, 1842; also June 15, July 28, 1842. To AsHBEL SMITH 1 Executive Department, City of Houston, July 15, 1842 To the Honorable Ashbel Smith, Charge d'Affaires, &c., &c. Sir,- I have been informed of the contemplated absence of the Honorable A. de Saligny,2 Charge d' Affaires of France near this government, and of the causes which lead to it. His health is now bad, and by his continuance here during the summer and autumnal months, his life might be endangered. His absence therefore, for a few months, meets with the approbation and advice of his friends, and of the government. Indeed, there is no existing necessity, within the knowledge of the government, why his presence for a short time might not be dispensed.with without detriment to either nation; but on the contrary, it may prove advantageous to both, that he should make his expected visit, &c., &c., &c., &c. Sam Houston. 1 Ashbel Smith Pa.pe1·s, The University of Texas Library; also, Executive Record Book, No. 40, pp. 117-118, Texas State Library. See Houston to Saligny, July 8, 1842. :?During the administration of Mirabeau B. Lamar, Alfonse de Saligny, charge d'c1fja.fres from France, had an open rupture with the Texas Govern- ment over an affair growing out of the killing of some pigs that belonged to one Bullock, an inn keeper at Austin, by Saligny's hostler. This trivial matter almost caused open hostility on the part of France toward Texas, and was declared to be the chief cause of the failure of the Texas diplomats to float a Joan for Texas in France. After Houston's election for a second term as President of the Republic in 1841, the matter was smothered and Saligny
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