1082
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
equivocal terms. I am a nfexican citizen, I have never failed in my duty as such, and I never will- I fear the first p1·onouncenient by the State Government rnacle at :Monclova in June n.gainst the President Genl. Santana has had a bad effect in Texas. It was a very precipitate and imprudent step and has produced an answer from Saltillo qu-ite in character, that is a counter p1·onouncement. I hope that the authorities of the colony have paid no other attention to either of these two pro11ouncements, or to any others, than to say oflicially an<l in the most respectful terms, tha.t those authorities will recognize and obey the President of the United l\fexicah States Genl. Antonio Lopez Santana, untill he is constitutionally deposed from that high station, which he occupies by the legal vote of the nation;.and that those author- ities recognize no other mode of deposing a President, except the one prescribed in the general Constitution of the .nation, which every citizen has sworn to obey, and which those authorities will obey rigidly etc, etc. I again and again advise Texas to keep clear of the political family quarrels of this republic. A dead siknce is the best possible course for Texas. The President Santana has been accused by his enemies of having turned Congress out of doors on the 31 of :May, and of ha,ing trampled upon the national representation etc. Tliis whole ques- tion turns upon the construction of the 71st article of the general constitution, which says that Congress shall close its sessions on the 15th day of April each year, but m,ay extend the sessions fo-r 30 days m01·e, if the two houses think proper or if the president requests it. Now, on the 15th day of April of this year the sessions were closed ns the above article prescribed, and Congress decided that the session should be extended to 30 days more (exclusive of feast or holy clays) as said article prescribed they could do. The said thirty days expired, and Congress attempted to continue the sessions beyond that time. Had they any constitutional power t_o do so 1 If they had not, was it, or was it not the duty of the Presi- dent, under his oath •of office, to prevent Congress from doing an unconstitutional act i The whole question turns upon these con- stitutional points. It will be remembered that the judicial author- ity have no power to annul an unconstitutional act of Congress, and that the president is bound by his oath of office to prevent any un- constitutional acts from being committed by any person, or by any authority-should it be necessary for Congress to meet after the expiration of the 30 days the constitution Article 110 clause 17 and 116 clause 3 says tl1ey may be ca11ed in ext,ra sessio11s by the council of government, and the executive and there is no other mode. prescribed in the constitution for rrettinrr Conrrress to~cther, e b 0
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