TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
if he delayed any longer to act; and it was this conviction, and this alone, which drove him into the first and only step he ever took in favor of the measure since his reception of the propositions of , Santa Anna. The disagreement between him and the Congress was com- promised by his writing a secret message in favor of the measure; and their allowing him to appoint the Minister to conduct the negociation, provided he would do it in good faith and without procrastination. This extorted appointment embraces all the action of General Houston on the subject of Annexation. When he had no further hopes of de- laying or defeating the measure; he writes a letter to General Jackson in which he expresses an acquiescence, and yet at the same time be- trays the latent sentiment of his heart by arguing against it so forci- bly that the enemies of the measure refer to the letter in vindication of their own principles. In violation, however, of the assurances given in it, his partisan Newspapers and government officers still kept up their hostility to the measure. Thill state of things continued until his term of office expired. Such, gentlemen, is a plain exhibition of General Houston's official con- nection with the mea,mre of Annexation. After his retirement from office, his hostility to it is equally distinctive, as exhibited in various ways, but especially in his approval of Anson Jones' conduct, which he says is but a continuance of his own policy. And what has been the course of President Jones? His motives are as suspicious and his conduct as unsatisfactory as that of his friend and predecessor. But this much, at least, we know. He revived the disgraceful negociations [sic] with Mexico even after his reception of the Joint Resolutions from the United States. He refused to call the Congress together to act upon these Resolutions until he was forced to it by the rising indignation of the people. He delay('d that call for the purpose of allowing the British Minister sufficient time to return from Mexico with the re• sult of his negociations. When the Treaty ·arrived, he accepted it, and acted upon it. He did this with a view of forestalling the congress on the Joint Resolutions. Only ten days before the meeting of that body he issued a Proclamation of an Armistice with Mexico based upon his Elliot Treat~·, in which hr. betrayed his own baseness, and outraged the feelings of the great body of the people of Tex11s by laying before them the needles11 and insulting alternative of "Independence awl peace with all the world. or, Annexation with ifa r,0n,tingencies." A conduct so unamnican and false to the known will of the country, and at the same time so 11landerou11 of it!' chivalry and patriotism, has met with the onl:v nuniHhment which i::o low an offender can provoke; the silent contempt of the nation- and the apnroval of Sam Houston. Is any further evidenC'e reouired of r..eneral Houston'1; hostility to this question? Then look at his obstinate silence durinl?' the onlv period of doubt and di8<'Ussion, bet.ween the reception of the Re8olu~ tions and the nction of the people- a nr.riod at whi<'h a friencl of the mea1;nre would C'ertainlv have heen itl'l 11dvo<'ate. ancl woulcl hat"P. prouclly co-onerated in f>Rrrvinq it out. Not so with him. Though ca.lled upon for 11n a,owal of hi1:1 opinions, e,en the puhlic solicitude of hiR friends coulcl n<>t extort A rr>iip,mse in it8 favor. It was not until a crisiA hail arriv,:,cl when hostilitv. or PVen 1;ilence woulcl be ruin, that he could be prevailed on to !:prak. The period for the election of
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