WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1846
495
·would not the fleets of the United States have blockaded her ports and attempted to coerce her into submission? Texas was not in circumstances thus to enforce compliance by the United States; and therefore this Government was the more sacredly bound- being bound by honor alone. And would she suffer her national character to be blasted by refusing to redeem her promises? After all that could be said, that was the question now before the Senate. In a personal interview between the President of Texas and the Minister of the United States, the former said that the assur- . ances of the latter were too vague and indefinite. In consequence of that complaint, Mr. Donelson, in his letter to the Secretary of State of Texas, of the 11th June, by direction of the Executive of the United States, tendered assurances still more full and explicit, if possible, than those already recited; and which were subse- quently endorsed by the action of both Houses of Congress, by the admission of Texas. Thus the Senate will perceive that time after time the honor of this Government was engaged for every pledge given by its .Minister, whether express or implied. Texas received and relied on these assurances, not doubting that they would be honorably redeemed ; and, from the whole tenor of the correspondence, it was most evident that the President of the United States under- stood that whatever remained incomplete in the negotiation would be made up by the action of Congress; and that such was also the understanding of the President of Texas must be equally evident. Who could believe that the Minister had inserted in the official correspondence anything about excluding the officers of the Texan navy? Would the United States say to a weak and confiding neighbor, We will receive all you have, but will then dishonor your officers by excluding them from our navy? Texas was at that time passing through the crucible of affliction; she was pressed between Mexico on the one side and Great Britain and the United States on the other; she had thrown herself into the arms of the United States; and if she was to have no hope here she had no hope anywhere. What was the value of words, what was the worth of that far-famed faith of this Government, which was known and admitted throughout the world, if she was going to say to a portion of her own citizens, when pleading that faith, "You are too weak to be regarded?" Would a course like this add much to the glory of that banner which had waved victoriously in so many battles for freedom, and which had been consecrated by the devotion of the wise and the good? Would it greatly elevate the character and standing of the American people, that the United
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