in violation of the expressed will of the Congress, at that time in session, smuggled him out of the country.1

When Santa Anna was once out of Texas, he laughed at his promise to Houston as neither legally nor morally binding upon him; and, though he made those promises with all the sanctity of deep contrition, and heartfelt interest for our young nation, yet the whole civilized world justified him in their breach, and wondered at the credulity of our Executive in believing that such a promise was in any way binding.2

In full view, which this farce brought upon us as a nation, President Houston persisted in his "peace policy," and his next step was the disbandment of the best-appointed army Texas ever had in the field, and a total neglect of the law of Congress ordering him to build two steamers, one sloop of war, and two schooners. Thus ended President Houston's first administration, with offence enough to [19] vex the enemy, and not energy enough to make him respect us; and it closed with a universal national conviction that a different policy was necessary.3 That national conviction called to the administration of the government General Mirabeau B. Lamar, a gentleman whose gallant bearing at San Jacinto, and a general chivalry of character, was a sure guaranty that in him it would be fully carried out.

President Lamar did more towards carrying it out. He built the navy, and maintained the mastery of the Gulf; he beat back the Indians and extended the frontier; but, unfortunately for the nation, his administration closed without that bold and energetic strike upon our Mexican enemy which would at that time have given us peace.4 This war policy was advocated by the Hon. Branch T. Archer, then Secretary of War and Navy, and sustained by Vice-president Burnet, the Hon. James Webb, attorney-general, Major-general Felix Husten, and other distinguished individuals. Thus closed the sixth year of this quasi war, which had involved the nation in heavy debt, depreciated to a fearful extent the value of individual property, and by the ravenous operations of the courts, sheriffs, and constables, had brought misery and distress into the bosom of many a good family. An infatuation seemed to possess the land injurious as it was lasting. Most men seemed to think, when not in the immediate sight of the Mexicans, that the war was at an end. The dockets of the courts were [20] crowded with foreign claimants in the absence of all treaty authority upon the subject, and vast amounts of property changed hands from those who had won and were still willing to fight for the country, to those who never drew a blade or contributed a dollar in the war. By thus acting, as though the war did not really exist, the chief government of the country was the government of the courts; not one of protection, but, under the peculiar circumstances of the times, of destruction to the many; because the establishment of this branch of the government, which presupposed a close of the revolution and a final accomplishment