Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/156

the President, composed of many of the same elements which had attempted to rule him before, and had only brought the country near to ruin. The opposition aimed to control the appointments under the new administration. All such efforts to constrain his policy were, as they had been before, ineffectual and fruitless. From among the most enlightened and firm statesmen of Texas, he chose for his Cabinet officers, men in whom, not only he, but the country, reposed unlimited confidence. Hon. Anson Jones (the last President of the Republic) became Secretary of State; Col. G. W. Hockley (a warm patriot and a devoted friend of Houston in all his struggles). Secretary of War and Marine; Hon. William H. Daingerfield, Secretary of the Treasury; and Hon. G. W. Terrell, Attorney-General. Multitudes of broken-down speculators and politicians from the United States, hopeless of winning distinction in the new field which they had chosen, continually flocked to Texas and joined the ranks of those who had declared openly that they would ruin Houston's administration, even if revolution ensued, and zealously devoted themselves to the ruin of the young Republic. Having marked out his policy, calmly and steadily he moved on to its execution. The annexation of Texas to the United States was the first measure which engaged his attention; to aid in its accomplishment, he dispatched a minister to Washington to open negotiations. If annexation failed, his next object was to secure from Mexico the recognition of the independence of Texas. If he failed in both objects, he was resolved, in order to secure the peace, extend the commerce, and advance the prosperity of Texas, to open negotiations with France or England, and form a treaty or enter into an alliance. His next movement was to recall from Yucatan the little navy which President Lamar had dispatched thither to help on a revolt. A wide coast and a broad sea, and a country absolutely stripped of all defences, were open to the depredations of the enemy. Mexico had every provocation in the Santa Fe expedition, and the league with Yucatan, to renew hostilities. The amity which had subsisted between Texas and the Indian tribes, had been broken by the outrages committed. When, therefore, an irruption from the frontier, or an invasion from Mexico, might at any time be reasonably expected, in this exposed condition of the country, Houston recommended Congress to raise a company of sixty men to protect the archives, as there was then no military force in the field. Congress refused to adopt the recommendation and grant the needed subsidies, and adjourned the 5th of February. The seat of Government having been removed from its temporary location at Houston to its permanent site at Austin, the President started for Houston to bring his family to Austin, and in the early part of