ing of a measure that is not remarkably popular in Texas, I think— the Wilmot Proviso—said that you might slay it here, and it had been said that it was killed, but that the ghost—the dead corpse—had returned, clad with steel, and proceeded to stalk through these halls again. I really thought he said a dead horse, instead of a dead corpse, at the time; and it occurred to me at the moment, that if I saw any such spectre walking through the Hall, or on any portion of terra firma to which I could lay claim, either in or out of the State of Texas, and I had anything to do with the grooming of that horse, I need not borrow old Whitey's silver currycomb to do it, but would take an iron one [laughter], and I would rub him down with that.
I shall not occupy further the time of the Senate, and shall content myself with submitting to their consideration the views I have presented.
Mr. Clay. As these resolutions are likely to be the subject of further discussion, I move to lay them on the table for the present.
The motion was agreed to.
[Note.—General Taylor's decease, shortly after the delivery of this speech, induced the author to suppress it, with the design never to publish it, had it not been that the Hon. Mr. Pierce, of Maryland, and the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, made replies which were published. As those gentlemen animadverted, with some degree of severity, upon Mr. Houston's remarks, he felt it a duty to submit them, with the reasons for them, to the community.]
SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, FEBRUARY 11, 1853, ON THE BILL PROVIDING FOR THE TEXAS DEBT.
On the bill to provide for the payment of such creditors of the late Republic of Texas as are comprehended in the act of Congress of September 9, 1850, Mr. Houston said:
Mr. President: I am very reluctant to occupy a moment of the precious time of the Senate, and particularly when other matters which are, in the estimation of honorable gentlemen, of so much urgency are pressed upon the attention of the body. But the bill before the Senate seems to implicate the character of the State of which I am in part the representative on this floor, and demands of her Senators at least an explanation. If they are incapable of vindicating her reputation, if she can not be justified in the course which she has adopted, no excuse will be rendered for it; and, to determine upon the merits of her claims to consideration and to the due regard of her sister States, it is proper that we should advert to the circumstances under which those debts originated, and under which they are held by the present claimants.
Texas, when she rose from her revolutionary struggle, did not owe much more than $2,000,000; and more concurred in the opinion that she owed but a million and a half than that her debt exceeded two millions. This constituted the amount of her entire liabilities at that time, and up to the year 1838. From the period of the commencement of her separate Government, in the fall of 1836, down to the winter of 1838, her entire debt did not exceed $2,500,000, embracing all her liabilities; and her entire currency in circulation was less than half a
