11· I I
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
152
To ZACHARY TAYL0R 1
Private
Washington, Texas, December 9th, 1842.
To General Taylor, General,
Though I have not had the pleasure of maintain- ing with you, either a private or public correspondence, the fact of the former not being the case, was not owing to inclination, but a press of business and the uncertainty of where my letters would reach you. I heard with great pleasure that you had been assigned to the command of the department bordering on our frontier. From your high military character and established moral worth, I anti- cipated the happiest consequences to both countries. My antici- pations have not been disappointed, since I learned of your soli- citude to have peace established between Texas and the Indians upon our frontiers. That has ever been desideratum with me since I first made Texas my home. My earliest solicitude has undergone no change. Calamity is the consequence of war; and the inhabitants of our frontier must, from that cause experience great distress and alarm. A treaty was negotiated by our commissioners with those In- dians last summer, suspending all hostilities and agreeing to meet on the Brazos this fall, for the purpose of making a general treaty. The United States, as I have been officially informed, have agreed to guarantee the performance of the stipulations for peace on the part of those Indians; and I rejoice at the assurance. It is of vital importance to Texas, that it should be consummated. The Indians did not attend on the Brazos; though I sent com- missioners to the place it was understood they had appointed to meet at. Some circumstances not known to me, must have oper- ated upon them. To obtain and transmit to me information on that subject is one reason for my soliciting your kind offices. Recently I have been assured by the Government of Her Britan- nic Majesty, that Mexico had refused the acceptance of the medi- ation proffered by that Government between Texas and Mexico; with the further assurance, that Santa Anna was preparing to invade Texas with a formidable army in the Spring. You will at once perceive, General, the importance of amicable relations with those Indians, so as to enable us to act with all our available force and means against Mexico. I do not consider that a pacifi- cation brought about through the agency of the United States with those Indians, or kind offices bestowed upon the subject by
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