WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
520
In a New Orleans paper my eye met a telegraphic dispatch of the 3rd inst. from Washington, stating that the "President dis- approves of the action taken by Governor Houston in calling out volunteers in Texas to defend the frontier." I can but feel assured that this remark in view of the facts which have trans- spired since my induction into office certainly justifies and calls for refutation for the reason that I have ordered no troops on the Rio Grande, or destined for that frontier. So far from that being the case, four companies which were on service on the Rio Grande when I came into office, were mustered out of service and two companies were forwarded under the advice of the Commissioners conferring with Major Heintzel- man of the United States Army. They are subject to his orders. I am very 1·eluctant to trouble the Department and wished that I would not do so upon any frivolous pretext. Hence, it was that I sent Commissioners that I might possess myself of the origin of the difficulties, and if I should find them of such grave char- acter as to require my action, I would lay them before the Gov. ernment that the President might direct corresponding action to be taken in relation thereto. You will thus perceive the becoming caution and at the same time the scrupulous deference to the Federal head of the Gov- ernment. Had I consulted the safety and the impulses of our citizens, I should have called into the field the whole available force of Texas and crossed the Rio Grande and never recrossed it until we should have had "security of the future." The troops sent to the Rio Grande did not, so far as I am ap- prised, contemplate crossing to the Mexican side until the Ranches were fired into from the Mexican side of the river and a man was wounded, and certainly there was no authority given them to do so. Though it does seem to me that would have been justi- fiable in pursuing an outlaw and rebel wherever he might be found or wherever he receives aid, succor and protec~ion. Under the circumstances of the attack upop. a vessel of the United States on the waters of Texas, I can but discover more in the conduct to commend than to censure. 'Tis true that since 1857 I have been written to from various parts of the United States urging me to invade Mexico with a view to the establishment of a protectorate and assuring me that men, money, and arms would be·placed at my command if I would engage in the enterprise. To these overtures I made no favorable response, though as an individual I might have co- operated with them, by placing myself beyond the jurisdiction
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