Houston v1

321

WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1835

T'o HENRY SMITH 1 Head Quarters, San Felipe de Austin, December 17, 1835. To His Ex. Henry Smith, Governor of Texas Sir: On yesterday I had the honor to receive your order, directing the establishment of the headquarters of the army at Washington. It will give me pleasure to obey the order at the earliest possible moment. In the meantime, I do most earnestly solicit the attention of your excellency to the subject of an appropriation to cover the recruiting contingencies of the army. And I would beg leave to suggest the necessity of establishing a system of accountability in all its disbursing departments; requiring ample security of all the officers, who may be entrusted with funds, agreeably to the system established in the United States, if the provisions of the organic law are not sufficient. More than a month has now elapsed since the adjournment of the consultation, and the army is not yet organized; and, though I have ordered some officers on the recruiting service, it has been on my own responsibility. It is extremely painful to me to feel what I am compelled to experience, and believe to exist. I have never failed to render any information, when called on by the chairman of the military com- mittee\ and to furnish such books as he wished for his instruc- tion. Yet, I am constrained to believe that he has interposed every possible obstacle to the organization of the army 3 ; and, so far as I am identified with it, to delay the placing of Texas in a proper state of defence. To arrive at this conclusion, it is only necessary to advert to a report which he made on the subject of the speedy organiza- tion of the army. In the report he took the liberty ( though en- tirely unnecessary) of using remarks of a personal character toward myself. The honorable the general council deem_ed them so indecorous that they were stricken out of the report. To ac- count for this course on the part of the chairman is not necessary. I am careless of whatever individual feelings may be enter- tained toward me : but as a functionary of the government, placed in the most responsible situation, and so necessary to the salvation of the country, I am constrained to invoke and to hope for the necessary co-operation in discharge of the duties which I owe to the country and its laws. I am ready to make any and every sacrifice which my relations to the country may require of me.