THE AUSTIN PAPERS 873 populous cities, I as one of those settlers,•and as a leader of Texas pioneers, prise it very highly~ This country is much more valuable than was ever supposed. I have seen the best pnrt of North America from Boston to the City of Mexico, and I have no hesitation in say- ing that Texas has moz-e advantages in fertility of soil, climate, and locality than any section of the country I have ever seen... I am well aware that the mere i<lea of a wilderness carries with it in the minds of. many; the frightful picture of savages, wild men and beasts, and barbarism, but those who associate those ideas with the population of Texas, do us an injustice and deceive themseh-es. We have just hnd a convention of all Texas, native Mexicans and foreign settlers--all•united as one man. 1 )Ve have asked for a State government and a repeal of the laws restricting emigration. What will be the fate of our application I know not. It may be said that· we are too few for a state. To this it may be replied, what cannot or will not determined enterprise effect 'l In December 1821 I arrived on the Brazos River with about 20 families in the center of a wilderness,.surrounded by hostile indians and far remote from all resources. We were then called madmen and our total destruction was predicted. Those 20 have grown to many thousands. The idea of a State at this time, is much less bold than was the idea of success at that time, with so feeble a beginning. We have done our duty faithfully as Mexican citizens, and will continue so to do. Whatever may be the view which the Mexican government may take of the past, we .can with honest truth ·say, that our consciences are clear. Should the future drive us into an attitude of hostility in defense of what we have so dearly earned, the public opinion of good men, I think, will acquit us of all wrong- we shall then expect that the sympathies which cheered the struggling Greeks and· Poles-that sanctioned the independence of Spanish America-that applaud the liberals ·of France, and the reformists of Great Britain, will also cheer the humble watch fires ·of our un- disciplined militia, and if necessary soon swell their ranks to a respectable army. The settlers of Texas are disciplined in toils and privations, in hard enterprise and contempt of danger, in constitu- tional principles and in honest industry, but they are untrained in the art of regular warfare-they have never been the tools of op- pression nor the engines of destruction. The sons of the North may be buried in Texas, but they cannot be driven from .it-neither do I think such a thiner will .be attempted-it would be a blind and • • .t::> . • m1Stnken policy , This country, as a state of Mexico, would prosper- it .wo:uld be of great service to the nation, and add much to the 1 The ;Journal ot this convention, Oct. 1-6, 183!?, can be tound most conrenlt'ntly In Gammel, Laws of Tc.cas, I, 475-603 , 88370-28--oR
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