WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 184-3
485
government, the Executive might have some ground for sup- posing, from the language and tenor of the Senate's communica- tion, that it might have arisen from a want of intelligence on the part of those who voted for its adoption. The Executive would be glad that he could have found a pallia- tive for the outrage which has thus been attempted against his rights, which could be advanced in mitigation of the assault. But though this might have been considered as humiliating to some extent to that Body, it would have left them free from the suspicion of a deliberate design to give countenance to the various calumnies alluded to in the preamble and resolution and in that way if possible bring suspicion upon the acts of the Executive as well as the gentlemen connected with him in the administration of the government. That the preamble and resolution were intended to reflect directly upon the Executive and to countenance and endorse the multiplied slanders and defamatory "reports" which have been busily circulated through the medium of factious demagogues and incendiary presses, no ·rational man can doubt. Had this act of the Senate emanated from a patriotic desire to subserve the true interests of the country, by adhering with fidelity to its institutions, the Executive would have been first to approve the motive and laud the action. He feels too lively an interest for his country and its welfare, as has been evinced by his every act from the very moment of its existence to the present juncture, to yield to any other the exclusive merit of patriotic devotion. Had he been of yesterday in the country, attracted only by the hope of speculation and the improvement of his fortune; and had he failed to introduce his family as a guaranty for the duties of citizenship; ~nd had he, moreover, retained a succe-daneu-m in another country, as a provision to which he might resort in the event of distress or disaster to Texas, then his private feelings as well as official action might be called in question. ·But notwithstanding he has been identified with the country from before the existence of the Republic, it seems, from the action of a minority of the whole number of the Senators elect by the nation, that his motives and his actions are to be called in question by that body, in the most unprecedented manner. The only excuse for this extraordinary movement on the part of those who passed the preamble and resolution is grounded upon the allegation that "great excitement has for some time existed upon the subject of negotiations said to be going on between
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