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WRITINGS OF 5AM J-IoUSTON, 1844
356
On almost every question affecting the policy of the present administration, which required the casting vote of the vice President, he gave it against the Executive. During these events I never permitted myself to use an unkind expression towards him because I did not attribute his actions to himself, so much as I did to the influence of those with whom he associated. In the Spring of 1842, after the Mexicans had retired from Bexar, he delivered an address to the volunteers who had as- sembled at that place, in which he cast many reflections upon the Executive, amounting to a full-denunciation of the peace policy which the necessities of the nation obliged me to pursue. In the autumn of the same year, he again addressed the citizens of Texas inviting them to meet in October at San Antonio to form an expedition against Mexico stating that he had conferred with several gentlemen who were united with him in the project; notwithstanding the orders of the Executive had been then issued and such measures adopted as were deemed by the Government most advisable for the good of the country. During all this time, I had the honor to receive but one com- munication from Gen. Burleson, and that came to me by the hands of Thomas Jefferson Green, expressing a strong desire for prosecuting offensive measures West of the Rio Grande. He never made me any report of his proceedings, or of the con- dition of affairs in the West. The excitement thus produced by those opposed to the ad- ministration greatly agitated the community and was a moving cause in getting up the expeditions which resulted so disastrously at Mier. Yet all these facts have never induced me to denounce Genl. Burleson. If his views did not accord with the policy which I was sat- isfied the necessities of the country required me to pursue, I did not ascribe them to any impure motive on his part ; because I believed him a patriot and thought that he was influenced by men who regarded their own advancement, and wished to render him subservient to their own promotion [and] aggrandizement without regard to the public interests. For these reasons I per- mitted the course he pursued to pass without complaint. You further wish to know, gentlemen, whether I consider Dr. Anson Jones liable to the imputations cast upon him as a man and ·public officer by the men and press in the support of Gen.
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