WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 18tl3
204
abandoned loafers of the country. They shall not riot on the spoils of honest industry, if my exertions will avert such a curse. Let the idle go to work-the honest remain so-the vicious and profligate reform, or leave the country, and Texas will be pros- perous and happy. She has not means to pay the class of men who have already despoiled her of her means, her credit, and her character. She must have time and recuperate, or she must perish. I hope you will write often. Thine truly and devotedly, Sam Houston [Rubric] 1 "Houston's Private Executive Record Book," pp. 380-381, courtesy of Mr. Franklin Williams. For Robert A. Irion, see Volume II, p. 37. :isee Houston to Gail Borden, Jr., April 22, 1843; also letters from Houston to Borden on September 23, 1842, and February 24, 1843, for a clear understanding of this letter. All these letters are in this volume.
I
To GEORGE W. HocI<LEY 1
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Private
Washington 13th May, 1843.
My dear Hockley, You will see what Commodore Moore has done.~ My course in the matter was plain and straightfor- ward. I could· but denounce the act by anticipation, and absolve the nation from the odious charge of double dealing. The penalties which Moore has incurred, if they can be inflicted, will be an example to delinquents and will close his career in a way becoming his past life. His conduct has proved him always a pirate upon the national treasury. His last acts of assumption, mutiny and piracy outdo all his former delinquences and crimes. How such a state of affairs is to be accounted for is not easy to a mind which has always regarded subordination to laws and superiors as paramount obligation. This man has seen the force of the social and political derangement of which he was an active cause, spread throughout the country, and he entertains but little doubt that the power of disorganization will shield him from the penalties of the laws and from justice. At no fime in a free country has society and preservation so loudly demanded an example as in the present case and at the present time. The harvest is now ready for the sickle and the reapers must now place themselves between the furrows and cast in their reap hooks and scythes, or the harvest will be lost.
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