WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1843
444
or chapter identified with its advancement to freedom and pros- perity, and wipe out the name of Houston, and leave no blank there? Would to God it were done, and myself withdrawn from the public eye. What motive could incite me to betray my coun- try? What! acknowledge Santa Anna's supremacy! I well remem- ber Santa Anna's visit to Texas. On that occasion I sent him home. Yes, I freed the captive bird from his cage and sent him home; and the act of liberation told him this was the natural burial ground of tyrants and butchers of mankind. And I would see this accomplished; for what? To be transferred to England, to become a British territory. The English may be our friends, and serve us, as they have done. They are attached to a legitimate monarchy. But take the race of North America, and their progeny who have removed to Texas. Can you place scepters before them that they will not break, or crowns that they will not trample in the dust? The Anglo-Saxon cannot stoop be- neath equality with the world. Answer me the question. That I should think to throw chains over the multitude of Texas, for a moment! There is a constant effort made to prejudice Texas against England. Why?-Because England has done us service. Let her be turned away from us; drive her from our cause, and Houston's policy must sink, and Texas revert to her former condition.- That is the secret. It is not the policy that is denounced. It is the man; I never could see the mystery which lies concealed in the breast of a nation's parricide who would rather see his coun- try destroyed than saved by its constitutional head. I am not popular in address, and rather uncomely in presence. I never could see anything else, as cause of objection. But it will be so. It can't be helped. I will excuse the malignity, while I cannot excuse the crime. Yes, it is that,-drive England and France from us, and what would be our situation? England has opened a negotiation with Mexico, in relation to our affairs. Has that done us no service?-We are certainly more tranquil than we have been for years. When have we had a year's respite from anxiety before this? Never, since the revolution. Now, people have planted their crops, and pursued their various avocations for one year, and there has been no sound of war. Are these no benefits? Has England withheld her aid from us? Is she entitled to the denunciations thrown upon her in connection with the Executive of this country? Abolition, forsooth. Not like certain agitators who have several sides :-not like some gentlemen who have enjoyed every phase of ,.liaracter and volitics; and have always been oDnosed to the
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