WRITINGS OF 'SAM HOUSTON, 1860
538
To THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS 1 Executive Department, Austin, Texas, March 24, 1860. To the People of Texas: I deem it my duty to my fellow- citizens, in view of the troublesome times that have befallen Texas, to place before them the results of my efforts to obtain the aid of the Federal Government in behalf of our frontiers, invaded by the Indians, who are daily bringing ruin and desolation upon our helpless fellow citizens, and subject to a recurrence of the outrages from the bandits organized in Mexico. The telegraphic correspondence between myself and the War Department in reference to the report of the commissioners sent by me to investigate the Rio Grande trouble, have already been placed before the country. In addition, I sent by hand of General Forbes Britton, bearer of dispatches to Washington, the following letter to the Secretary of War: [See above to John B. Floyd, February 15, 1860] In the despatches of the Secretary of War to me, of the 28th ult., the following language is used : "Such measures as the means and power of the Department . could command, have been taken for the defence of the Texas frontier on the Mexican border." . .. "Strong additional reinforcement will be sent into Texas as soon as the season of the year will render a movement of troops pos- sible." Believing that the language indicated a desire on the part of the Federal Government to aid Texas if the means were at hand, with the prospect of another invasion from Mexico and with the horrible outrages committed by the Indians on our people before me, I determined to place within the reach of the Federal Government the means to defend Texas, and accordingly on the 8th inst., the following despatch was sent: [See To Floyd, March 8, 1860, above.] With the emergency before me, independent action on my part, as the Executive of a State of the Union, would have been sanc- tioned by the civilized world; but in the present condition of our finances, I feel it my duty still to defer to the authority of the United States, so far as the aggressions on our soil from Mexico are concerned, and exert constitutional and legal powers only to meet the pressing emergency of our northern settlements. With a foe at our very doors, cunning, alert, and barbarous, I felt that there was sufficient reason for still deferring to the Federal
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