WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1846
494
to take care of it or convert it to public utility? Without this additon, the rest would be without value. The phrase "p·roperty ancl means" most clearly included men, for without men all the military property of the State must lie useless and could not be wielded. At all events, the contract was so understood by Texas. When her admission was intended to be effected by treaty, at the time the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] was Secretary of State, she had stipulated for the admission of her officers, and the two Governments came to a mutual understanding on that subject. When that treaty failed, and a joint resolution was substituted in its place, we must understand that resolution as embracing the same thing. Could these just expectations be met, and no provision made for the officers of her navy? If such should be the decision of this Government, Texas must submit to it, for she had no power to enforce the pledges given. All the power was in the hands of this Government, and, in uniting with a weaker government, she could have, if she chose to take it, the lion's share. In that case right must submit to power, and Texas m1:1st consent to see her national honor trampled on. That Texas did not come in as a dependent or disorganised terri- tory, but an organized State, prepared to become a member of the Confederacy, was manifest from the language employed by the Minister of the United States in all his correspondence with that Government. And it would seem also, that notwithstanding the much carped on connexion between Texas and foreign Govern- ments, the Minister, had strong faith in the success of his mis- sion. He treated Texas as independent, and she was so, first by her compact with Mexico under the constitution of 1824, and then by her resistence to oppression, and by having successfully achieved a separation from Mexican domination. She was inde- pendent by the recognition of the United States, by that of the European Powers of England, France, and Holland; and, finally, by the recognition of Mexico herself. When she bowed her head to the solicitations of this Government, she bowed it as a sovereign unconstrained, and it would be compromittal of her rights and her national honor if the entire obligation assumed towards her by this Government was not fulfiled. Texas had complied with the agreement on her part; would the United States fail on theirs? Had Texas entered into an open stipulation to confer certain benefits on this Government in exchange for those she received at its hands, and, after receiving them, had refused to comply with her engagement, would not the Federal arms have been employed to enforce her stipulations and compel her to comply with them?
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