75
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 184,2
How far it would be proper for Texas to move in this matter, ostensibly, if she possessed the means to invade Mexico, would require the deliberation of Congress united with all the consti- tutional functions of the Executive. To afford a satisfactory response to the "will of the people of Galveston" would be a source of pleasure to me, if I could do so within the limits of my official duties, and consonant with sound policy and the true interests of the nation. The 'duties of the Executive are well defined by the constitution and the laws; and he should not transcend either, but in case of actual invasion, when as some writers insist, the laws are silent from necessity for a time, and the law martial is substituted in place of the- laws created without the anticipation of extraordinary emer- gencies. lf this principle be correct in any case, the necessities of a Nation must be great indeed. To my mind no object short of its salvation would excuse or justify the course. That the present is a case that would authorize a disregard of the consti- tution and laws, I do not apprehend; nor can I conceive that the Executive would be excused for the exercise of a "wide discre- tion." lt was the exercise of a wide discretion "without law, which has produced the present condition of our unfortunate countrymen. No calamity has ever befallen Texas, from the commencement of the Revolution up to the capture of the Santa Fe Expedition, but what has been caused by a ~isregard of law and substituting in its place a "wide discretion." The subject was submitted to Congress at the last session, and had that honorable body thought it fit, they would have signified their opinions to the Executive, in favor of "offensive war" against Mexico, as the proper course for the Executive to pursue. Reso- lutions were presented to the Congress to invest the President with power, in case of actual invasion, by Mexico, to employ the anny, and fit out and employ the Navy on the Gul/,-which were passed in the Senate but rejected in the House of Representatives. The President is bound by a solemn oath, as well as a moral obliga- tion, to support his country, to defend the Constitution and to execute the laws. The power has never been canvassed, nor has the policy of ~mploying foreign aid to invade Mexico, on account of Texas, been presented to the nation. This mode of warfare has not been resorted to within my knowledge since the Crusades, more than six hundred years ago. Any reliance placed upon a plan of the kind, would, in my opinion, prove abortive for the want of cohesion in the military leaders who would bring into
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