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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
should stand against us, as a witness, at the Bar of our Judge and our God. A familiar acquaintance with the Word of God is worth more than all the wisdom of the schools. The religion which I hope God may grant to my children will be of the heart, and not that which consists in long faces, and outward forms only, but that which will be manifested by a harm- less cheerfulness which is an evidence of the true Christian. Love and kisses to all, Thy devoted Father, Sam Houston. Nannie E. Houston.
1 Copied from the original by the courtesy of Mrs. Margaret John.
REMARKS ON THE APPROPRIATION FOR RED RIVER 1 May 27, 1858. Mr. Houston. From some little knowledge of the Red river, I am inclined to think that all the money you have spent on it for the last twenty years has been thrown away, and the river has been always getting worse. From the time of Shreve, all the efforts that have been made to improve the river have been unavailing; and I am inclined to think the result of spending the $110,000 now proposed to be appropriated for it, will result in the same way. If you want to spend money on the southern waters, I could point out some that would really be benefited by an appropriation; but this is a most inauspicious time to revive the old experiments on Red river. They have died out, been resuscitated, and died out again. There has been a suc- cession of deaths and resurrections of projects to throw away money on Red river. I must confess that I am not in favor of it. I have not had an opportunity of consulting the Senators or Representatives from Louisiana; but this river is a boundary to the State in which I reside and represent, and it is very strange that I should not have gained some information about it. I should be very glad if the bill were laid over for the present-unless there is some urgent reason to the contrary- and that it be allowed to lie on the table until I can look into the matter, and see what amount has . been unavailingly ex- pended, and what is necessary to complete it according to the report of the engineers, and who the engineers were, and what plan is to produce the advantage they anticipate. I hope the bill will be suffered to lie over for the present.
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