The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911 Page: 53
348 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Reminiscences of Henry Smith.
Capitol. Notwithstanding they were using every means in their
power to raise a mob against me, the people in the various sections
of the country had notified me, that they were ever ready to obey
any call that I might think proper to make on them, and as such
I feared the consequences which might result to the country from
the uncontrolled conduct of an infuriated soldiery. The faction
had done and continued to do every thing in their power against
me, even to personal insult and abuse, and I at the same time using
every means within my power to restrain the people and soldiery
from inflicting upon them, that punishment which their crimes
justly merited. I was well aware of the situation of the country-
that we were in a state of rude nature a number of vague loose
individuals, tied together by no compact, and that necessity re-
quired the sacrifice of all personal ambition, to the promotion of
the public good. The situation of the country then was truly
critical, Want of union on the part of the general mass was taken
advantage of by the unprincipled speculators who were linked to-
gether for evil purposes. Whilst men are linked together they
easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design.
They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to op-
pose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed,
without concert, or discipline, communication is uncertain, coun-
sel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where men are not
acquainted with each others principles, nor experienced in each
others talents, nor at all practiced in their mutual habitudes and
dispositions, by joint efforts in business, no personal confidence, no
friendship, no common interest subsisting among them, it is evi-
dently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity,
perseverance, or efficacy. In a connexion, the most inconsider-
able man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value and
his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to
the public. No man, who is not inflamed by vain glory into en-
thusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desul-
tory, unsystematic endeavors are of power to defeat the subtle de-
signs and united cabals of ambitious and unprincipled factionists.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall,
one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
It is not enough, in a situation of trust in the commonwealth,
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911, periodical, 1911; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101054/m1/61/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.