287
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1843
It is respectfully requested that the Honorable, the Senate, cause this communication to be transmitted, in due season, to the House of Representatives, under injunctions of secrecy. Sam Houston. 1 "Messages of the Presidents," Crmgressional Papers; al!:'o Execut-ive Record Book, No. 40, pp. 200-205, Texas State Library. E. W. Winkler (ed.), Sec.1·et Jo111;wls of the Sen'l-te, Re7mblic oj Texas, 1836-1845, pp. 259- 276. The ivlorning Sta1·, December 30, 1843. Telegraph and Texas Register, January 3, 1844.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1
Executive Department, Washington, January 10, 1843.
To the Honorable, the House of Representatives: The duties which have devolved upon the Chief Magistrate of Texas in relation to the archives of the nation, as well as all other matters touching the administration of the government, have been discharged with fidelity. If the representatives of the people have failed to sustained him, he feels acquitted of his trust. Whatever of evil may befall the nation from the loss or destruc- tion of its archives, must fall upon the people- but not by the agency of their President. The rights of a large community in such an event, would be sacrificed to the clamor or supposed interests of a few, without the hope of any possible advantage to those who have resisted the constitutional authority of the nation; but manifest and incurable injury to the public welfare. The Executive having thus far discharged his duty, will use no further exertions on the subject, but leave the matter to the peovle and their representatives. He has striven against what he has fore- seen as a great and impending evil- he has not been sustained by a co-ordinate department-he is discharged from all further agency, and his hands are clean of all the consequences and calamities which may result to Texas as a nation. He believes that they will be heavy and manifold. Having so often expressed his candid belief and his hopes, in reference to the matter of so much moment, and enforced by every means in his power, and with an earnestness and honesty which he deemed his relations to the country required, reasons for providing for the safety of the archives, he now feels con- strained to declare and protest to your Honorable Body, that he
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