THE AUSTIN PAPERS 1031 can develop in that manner she must pay the price by a moral revolu- tion in which shall be overthrown all the customs and the Gothic politico-religious system set up by Rome and Spain to hold the people in subjection like beasts of burden-such ·a revolution she will have in a century but not in the life time of one man. You have been my friend since 1821, and I owe you a frank ex• pression of my thoughts. In this letter I have told nil my desires and dreams for Texas. I was not born in a wilderness, and have not the patience of the Bexarefios and other inhabitants of this frontier who are daily enduring the same dangers and annoyances that their fathers and grandfathers and perhaps their great-grand- fathers suffered, without advancing a single step or even thinking of advancing.· Death is preferable to such stagnant existence, such stupid life. I am very grateful to your brother, Don Manuel,1 and to the Commandant General, Don Pedro Lemus, and to all here for the kindness which they have shown to me. Please show this letter to Don Victor Blanco and to Don Teodoro Rivarol and tell them that I put their letters for Monclova in the mail here. I remain your very sincere friend, etc. EsTEVAN F. AusTL\". P.S.-I wish you would also do me the favor to show this letter to Senor Rcjon. I should be sincerely sorry if that patriot.and eloquent defender of liberty and reform should have erroneous ideas concerning this matter. I understand that the foundation of the political creed of that o-entlema.n is that we shoald proceed firmly and unwaveringly with 0 the system of radical reforms ~nt.il the life and habits of the mass of the Mexican people are entirely in harmony with the form of rrovernment adopted by the nation. This also is the object of my efforts in the little sphere in which I have worked. • In the United States of the North the government was adapted to established practices. In :Mexico the process has been the re,erse of this. Here it is necessary to shape habits and customs to !he system of government; and it is due to this fact that the natwn has encountered so much difficulty in consolidating itself. Customs are not chanrred or corrected by theories nor by oral or written preachinO' no ; 1 atter how clearly reasoned and eloquent i~ may be, witho~~ some practical and palpable applicat.io~ to the life and understandinrr of the mass of the people. I wished to· make this application in Texas and so prorrressh·ely, throughout ' ' 0 r · l the Rio Grande frontier; at the same time strengthening the po iticn
1 Governor ot Nuevo Leon.
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