WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 18•15
448
guilty of all that you charge me with and fifty times more, I would feel that I ought not to descend to a level with Anthony Butler. The sliding scale may do in politics, but it will not do in matters of character! If you are really bent on a fight, and nothing else will satisfy you, I will-Oh! here I must stop, as you tell me that you have heard from Washington City and they understood me there. I was about to say that I would try by the influence of friends and get you sent back to Mexico, that you might guster about with Mr. Tornel, according to your own ver- sion of the heroic difficulty, which you had with him about the exposure of falsehoods written to your Government while your person was protected by the laws of nations, which your conduct had dishonored. Col. as I cannot suppose you to change your tone to pleasantry nor I my opinions of your character in any respect, I think you had better agree with me in one thin_q only, and that is to drop our correspondence. You write beautifully and as you are pre- paring materials for a new work, it affords me pleasure as you state in your address, that you "keep no copy" to offer a con- tribution to the work which you intend to publish, by returning your letter with the compliments of the season, wishing you may live a thousand years or at least until you become an honest man, or get in a better humor, or do some good thing and have it certified to, and put into the Newspapers, and the autograph left with the printer, or make it the introduction to your "book." Let your own name appear in the title pages, taking care to ap- pend to the volume a book purloined by somebody from the State Department of Texas!!! Adieu, Colonel Sam Houston [Endorsed] : Copy of a letter to Anthony Butler, copied by D. D. Culp. Dec'r 27, 1845. Butler-Houston Manuscript 1 The Butler-Houston Correspondence, Texas State Library. For Butler, see Volume II, 225, 248. To THE ACTING COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE 1 Houston, Texas, 29th Dec. 1845. My dear Sir, The object of this letter is to ascertain whether or not there is any information in the General Land Office which will afford a clue to the "headright" of Peter Harper and his Bounty Land.
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