1080
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
me~t of a fellow citizen, a~d of one too who has labored fnithfully and with pure intentions to benefit every ·body he could, who hns in fact devoted the last 13 years to the advancement of Texas and of its inhabitants. They have not attempted to shuffle off any of the responsibility upon the shoulders of others. Their conduct has been open, public, frank, and candid, and marked by good faith, as the conduct of all men is, who labor solely for the public good. They harbour no low, vindictive and malignant feelings of envy or re- venge. If they have committed any errors, they were honest ones, and they ai:e free and frank to confess them, without attempting to shake them off upon their f ornwr c01npanion.~. In short, the object of S. F. Austin and his friends was the public good of Texas, and of Mexico. They acted in good faith in the whole matter. Their ob- ject has been accomplished. The Government have remidied the evils complained of in Texas, and which threatened that country with ruin, and those who last year acted in good faith, and with pure intentions in favor of separating·from Coahuila, are now opposed to it, because the reasons which made a seperation necessary no longer exist, and Austin, and his friends will therefore now be the first to oppose such a separation, or any other measures, that tend to disturb the established and regular order of things. They will discquntenance all men, whomever they may be, who attempt to attack the lt'Ie:x:ican Government, or any of its authorities, by word or .deed. S. F. Austin's motto always has been Fidelity to Mexico, oppositwn to violent 1nen or rneasu1·es. . That motto will continue to be the basis of his political faith, and the rule of his a.ct-ions. Ile also owes duties to the citizens of his colony, and to Texas, which he has never shrunk from executing, so far as he could. If proofs are needed to establish this fact, let them be sought for in the last 13 years, and they, will be found. His present incarcer:ation and persecutions are proofs. The heaviest responsibilities; the risk of his liberty, of liis all, were pre- sented to his view on the one·hand, and his duty, or what he believed to be his duty to Texas, on the other,-he adopted .the latter and did not hesitate to risk the former. And is he to be persecuted, calumni- ated and abused for having done so, and that too by some of the sarne men, who were the most.active, as they have boasted, in pre- cipitating him into the measures which have led to his present en- tanglements~ At one time I am abused for bein<Y too Mexican, too . t:, much the friend of :Mexicans, too easily deceived by the :Mexicans, too confiding in them, opposed to the separation from Coahuila, nnd in favor of keeping Texas forever bound to the State of Coahuila. and Texas. The people are excited against me to a fury, because I am too Mexican. I yield to the popular opinion, am appointed to
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