WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1843
404
the subject. The ten thousand dollars has already been reserved for carrying out the purposes of the law. All the power of the President ceased with ensuring this reservation. You ask whether my "sanction will be given for the militia to advance upon the Rio Grande and attack the enemy?" The law under which you were appointed does not embrace the subject of invasion, but simply of protection. It surely cannot be imagined that our legislators designed, in the passage of the law, to make the agent elected to carry out its specific provisions a "law unto himself," controlled by nothing but his own will. If such were the case, where would be the limit of his power? Would it not be more rational to conclude, if Congress intended to authorize such a policy, that they would have said so'! On the contrary, we find no allusion whatever to the subject, in the law under which you are acting. The words "invasion" or "foreign war" ·no where appear in the enactment. The general laws of the country authorize the President to call out the militia only in case of "insurrection or invasion." They allow him no discretion beyond the powers plainly granted. I take pleasure in assuring you that whenever it may become the duty of the President to act, he will do so promptly. And although the law under which you act was passed over his veto, it is his duty and he will regard and obey it as the law of the land. He has presented no obstacles to its execution, nor will he do so, though the emergency for which it was said to be designed may have long since transpired. Sam Houston. 1 Rusk Papers, The University of Texas Library. Executive Record Book, No. 40, pp. 253-255, Texas State Library. See Houston to Rusk, March 23, 1836. ~"An Act for the Protection of the Western and Southwestern Frontier, and other purposes," passed by constitutional majority, January 16, 1843. See Gammel, Laws of Texas, II, 26-28.
JUNE, 1843
To ASA BRIGHAM, TREASURERL Executive Department, Washington, June 1st 1843
To Major A. Brigham, Treasurer, &c. Sir-The request contained in your note of yesterday, for a 1 f b t f l· 11 health, I cannot temporary eave o a sence on accoun o
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