Details
HOUSTON, SAM, President of the Republic of Texas. Autograph letter signed in full, with large paraph, as President, to Colonel Thomas Ward in Austin; Houston, 25 August 1842. 3 pages, 4to, address panel and two dockets on verso of second leaf, traces of wax seal, outer edge of both leaves badly torn, with loss to the last and first words of 13 lines (and to part of one docket), a few other small holes.
"IF WE HAVE NOT PEACE THE FAULT WILL BE OURS"
A fine letter, written during a crucial period in Texan history, when the threat of a Mexican invasion after the seige of San Antonio in March was still imminent. Houston predicts peace with both Mexico and the Indian border tribes: "...Let the people know that I have commissionners sent to treat with all the Indians on our frontier! We will succeed, and if we have not peace, the fault will be ours. Our peace with Mexico seems mor[e] probable than it has done, at any f[or]mer period. England, France, and the U.S. wish a reconciliation, and I [am?] confident, that [General Antonio López de] Santa Anna, will be satisfied to let Texas alone, and attend [to] his own business. He can stay in power [if?] Texas was off his hands. He has used [i]t as long as it will be of use to him, and by the intervention of the Powers...he will have an excuse for giving up Texas, with the Mexicans. We can do well enough, and soon get out of debt, if the people will only attend to their own business, Let them watch the Indians, and if they can get a chance give those who annoy us a good drubbing. It will help to make peace! All the Indian families of Texas (hostile) are now over on the Canadian East of Red River."
[with:]
[HOUSTON, SAM]. Transcript (text and signature "Sam Houston" in an unidentified hand) of a message delivered to the Texas House of Representatives, Executive Department, Washington [Texas], 10 January 1843. 2 pages, folio, integral blank leaf docketed on recto, the name "Chas. J. King Esq." on verso, fold breaks, browned, a few small ink stains. Nine days after the final skirmish of the "Archive War," which resulted in the return of the Texas archives to Austin, Houston delivered to the Texas House of Representatives this vehement and darkly menacing admonition of the possible consequences of the exposure of the archives to a potential Mexican attack. "The duties which devolve upon me as the Chief Magistrate of Texas in relation to the Archives of this nation, as well as all other matters touching the administration of the Government have been discharged with fidelity. If the representatives of the people have failed to sustain him he feels acquitted of his trust. Whatever of evil may befal [sic] the nation from the loss or destruction of its archives must fall upon the people... The executive having thus far discharged his duty will use no further exertions on the subject but leave the matter to the people and their representatives. He has striven against what he has foreseen as a great and impending evil[;] he has not been sustained by a coordinate Department. He is discharged from all further agency and his hands clean of all the consequences and calamities which may result to Texas as a nation. He believes that they will be heavy and manifold. Having so often expressed his candid belief and his hopes, in reference to a matter of so much moment and enforced by every means in his power, and with an earnestness and honesty which he deemed his relations to the country required...he now feels constrained to declare and protest to your honorable body that he can no longer entertain a hope of their safety nor will he feel it any longer his duty to use any exertions for their preservation. He hopes that we may not yet have to exclaim, in the pathetic language of the sacred volume, "the harvest is past--the summer is ended," and add Texas is not saved". (2)
"IF WE HAVE NOT PEACE THE FAULT WILL BE OURS"
A fine letter, written during a crucial period in Texan history, when the threat of a Mexican invasion after the seige of San Antonio in March was still imminent. Houston predicts peace with both Mexico and the Indian border tribes: "...Let the people know that I have commissionners sent to treat with all the Indians on our frontier! We will succeed, and if we have not peace, the fault will be ours. Our peace with Mexico seems mor[e] probable than it has done, at any f[or]mer period. England, France, and the U.S. wish a reconciliation, and I [am?] confident, that [General Antonio López de] Santa Anna, will be satisfied to let Texas alone, and attend [to] his own business. He can stay in power [if?] Texas was off his hands. He has used [i]t as long as it will be of use to him, and by the intervention of the Powers...he will have an excuse for giving up Texas, with the Mexicans. We can do well enough, and soon get out of debt, if the people will only attend to their own business, Let them watch the Indians, and if they can get a chance give those who annoy us a good drubbing. It will help to make peace! All the Indian families of Texas (hostile) are now over on the Canadian East of Red River."
[with:]
[HOUSTON, SAM]. Transcript (text and signature "Sam Houston" in an unidentified hand) of a message delivered to the Texas House of Representatives, Executive Department, Washington [Texas], 10 January 1843. 2 pages, folio, integral blank leaf docketed on recto, the name "Chas. J. King Esq." on verso, fold breaks, browned, a few small ink stains. Nine days after the final skirmish of the "Archive War," which resulted in the return of the Texas archives to Austin, Houston delivered to the Texas House of Representatives this vehement and darkly menacing admonition of the possible consequences of the exposure of the archives to a potential Mexican attack. "The duties which devolve upon me as the Chief Magistrate of Texas in relation to the Archives of this nation, as well as all other matters touching the administration of the Government have been discharged with fidelity. If the representatives of the people have failed to sustain him he feels acquitted of his trust. Whatever of evil may befal [sic] the nation from the loss or destruction of its archives must fall upon the people... The executive having thus far discharged his duty will use no further exertions on the subject but leave the matter to the people and their representatives. He has striven against what he has foreseen as a great and impending evil[;] he has not been sustained by a coordinate Department. He is discharged from all further agency and his hands clean of all the consequences and calamities which may result to Texas as a nation. He believes that they will be heavy and manifold. Having so often expressed his candid belief and his hopes, in reference to a matter of so much moment and enforced by every means in his power, and with an earnestness and honesty which he deemed his relations to the country required...he now feels constrained to declare and protest to your honorable body that he can no longer entertain a hope of their safety nor will he feel it any longer his duty to use any exertions for their preservation. He hopes that we may not yet have to exclaim, in the pathetic language of the sacred volume, "the harvest is past--the summer is ended," and add Texas is not saved". (2)