PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuONAPARTE LAMAR
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at which the common law took its stand by the side of invaded State Rights - who is there to fi gu re so completely detected and unmac;ked as Sam Houston? Without the least delicacy, you coulll cry "halt" t(? your President at every step, with the justification that he and his minions never originated nor advocated a measure that did not admit of two sides! Could this be done with any other man? Had not every other candidate a crowd of friends, who extolled his integrity, Md exulted in his patriotism? It may be doubted whether Sam would con sent to ascend the pedestal here assi gn ed him, inasmuch as thereby, the honesty, sincerity and decorum claimed in his book would have to make their exeunt en masse; but if he had reached the Presidency, it would have cost him nothing to have denied the book, and to have pronounced it a hoax! He did all in his power against Annexation, and then laid claim to the merit of carrying it through. He engaged the Country in enormous debt, and commenced the issue of "paper promises"- and afterwards tried to lodge the imputation on his Successor who had sought to honestly discharge them ! Denial is his forte - repudiation his stronghold! "Jt is an old debt, General -a ,:,urn advanced you in time of need." "I make it a rule Sir, never to pay old debts." "General Houston, I am informed you have used defamatory lan- guage towards me, said Jack O'NookP." "It is 11,ntrue my dear NookR, -It is out of my power to say ill of you." ''Bui Genl. Houston, here is Tom Stiles who repeats your very words." "It may be, replied Houston, with a Talma flourish of his hand, which terminated with a slap o� his heart,- that this ton gu e uttered, but this heart never conceived ill of you." Sam's taste in "lovely woman" furnishes curious results. Whilst that "gamboge commidity,» Martha Houston, bawls forth her preten-. tions, the Cherokee Squaw, like another Cornelia, exhibits his red-off spring, the Texas Spouse counting largely upon the heritage of glory for her white brood; meanwhile, the first wife resting an impassive monument of his insensibility to moral worth and beauty. Speaking of tastes brings to mind the circumstance of the Rev. Timothy 1'arbuck, who being the bearer of introductory letters from Tennessee, was received by Sam Houston with a show of cordiality. Having introduced the Rev. Stranger to Mrs. Mann and Mrs. Raimon, ladies of some notoriety about the City of Houston, tlie gentlemen went to take tea with a matron of "majestic mien, a countenance of great dignity, and of highly cultivated intellect."- who, on their arrival, deposited her pipe in her elegantlv embroidered -pocket, and introduced them to a number of swan-necked damsels, whose nttive deportment almost forced upon one the idea, practically, of the Mussulman's paradise! "There is an obliquity," observed Houston, "either in our practice, or that of the bibli<'al heroes; we admit of hut one wife, whilst from the peculiarlv ble��"d Jarob downwards, a plurality was held blameless, if not commended." "The book is a history, General, not altogether to be edopted by us, under the new law, as an example fit for domestic guidance."
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