Houston, Sam (1793-1863) to Col. Thomas W. Ward re: predicting peace with Mexico & Indians, Texas
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01777 Author/Creator: Houston, Sam (1793-1863) Place Written: Houston, Texas Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1842/08/25 Pagination: 2 items 28 x 22 cm Order a Copy
Written as President of the Republic of Texas. Accompanied by an Executive Department order written and signed in secretarial hand.
City of Houston
25th Aug 1842
Dear Colonel.
I have only time to say to that I will soon write to you an important transcript. This will be [illegible] [illegible] as I can see a [illegible] farther, and hear from the U.S. Let the people know that I have commissioners 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 U.S. wish a reconciliation, and I fe[el] confident, that Santa Anna, will be satisfied to let Texas alone, and attend [2] 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 [illegible] to 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 given 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.
Your Friend
Sam Houston
[docket]
Genl. Sam Houston
Relative to further correspondence.
Indians and other
light matters.
August 25, 1842
To
Colonel Thom. Wm. Ward,
Austin
Texas
Mr. [illegible]
His Excellency
Sam Houston
Houston
August 25th 1842
Sam Houston. Letter: Houston, Texas, to Texas House of Representatives, 10 January 1843.
Executive Department
Washington Jan'y 10th 1843
To the Hon'l the House of Representatives - The duties which devolve upon me as the Chief Magistrate of Texas in relation to the Archives of the 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 the archives must fall upon the people but not by the agency of their President[.] the rights of a large community in such an event would be sacrificed to the clamor or supposed interest of a few, without the hope of any possible advantage to those who have resisted the constitutional authority of the nation, but immeasurable injury to the public welfare.
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 [2] 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 honest which he deemed his relations to the country required reasons for providing for the safety of the archives, 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
Sam Houston
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