The streets were deserted and silent, and the walk short. Taking his arm, I went with him to his home, rang the bell, and his servant met him at the door, and there my services as aid terminated. In after days and after years he was ever considerate and kind to me. The conqueror lives, but the man is dead. But O how pleasant the recollection of the times when those pure and knightly men with generous hearts, untouched by avarice, never closed the "door of mercy on mankind." Such men were Gens. Scott, Jesup, Gibson, Towson, Lawson, Totten, Abert, Cooper, and others. Then men served God and their country rather than mammon. The maddening, wild, and frantic rush for wealth was unknown, and life was one of enjoyment without extravagance. CHAPTER III. Death of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State--Calhoun Appointed--Treaty of Annexation of Texas--Declaration of the State of Massachusetts--Texas Accepts the Resolution of Annexation--Formation of Army of Occupation--Transferred to Maj. S. Ringgold's Battery of Horse Artillery--Officers Sail for Aransas Pass--The Wicked Captain--Becalmed--Cross Bahama Banks--Key West--Out of Drinking Water--Fare on Board Ship--Storm--Aransas Pass--St. Joseph's Island--Maj. Ringgold's Cook--Embark for Corpus Christi--Game and Fish--Horse Racing--White Horse of the Prairies--Trip to San Antonio--The Town--Incidents of the Trip. At this time there was being discussed by the public a matter that was destined soon to put an end to the pleasant life we were leading here. After the death of Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun was appointed to fill the vacancy, and the question of the admission of Texas as a State was discussed, and on the 12th of April a treaty of annexation was signed by him; and it was rejected by the Senate of the United States. So bitter was the feeling that, notwithstanding the purchase of Louisiana and Florida [and Alaska since], Massachusetts, through her Legislature, declared that Congress had no right or power to admit a foreign State or Territory into the Union; and that if Texas was admitted it _would not be binding on her_. By this Massachusetts made a declaration which the State could not carry out without _seceding_ from the Union, yet she seceded not. Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Polk as President a resolution for annexation was passed by Congress, and on June 23, 1845, Texas accepted the resolution, and became a State in the Union December 29.