936
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
ner the remedies that will relieve them cannot therefore be doubted or questioned. It is not merely a right, ·.it is also a sacred and bounden duty which they owe to themselves and to the whole Mexi- can nation, for should evils of great·and desolating magnitude fall upon Texas for the want of competent remedies, the people here would have cause to accuse themselves of neglect for not making an effort to procure such remedies, nnd the government would also have cause to complain, that a full and frank and timely representation had not been made a.nd a remedy solicited. It is very evident that these considerations have influenced the people of Texas in all they have done up to the present time. They have been governed by the desire to do their duty faithfully to the :Mexican nation and to themselves. In the discharge of this duty the people and civil authorities of Austins Colony made a respect- full and humble petition to the General and State governments on the 18 day of Feby 1832 1 setting forth the evils that were affiicting this country. The inhabitants and civil authorities of Bexar, the ancient and present capital of Texas, also made a very able and energetic represention on the same subject on the 19th of December last,2 Numerous other representatives have been made at various times by all the Ayuntamientos of Texas, and on the first of October last delegates of the people of Texas met in convention at this Town and unanimously resolved that it was expedient that the political union between Coahuila and Texas should be dissolved and that Texas should be organised as a separate -State of the Mexica.n con- federation as soon as the approbation of the General government to that effect could be obtained. That convention accordingly me- morialised congress on the subject, and elected an agent to go to Mexico in order to forward the views of the people of Texas in obtaining the sanction of the general government. But the continua- tion of the intestine commotions which have raged within the bosom of the Mexican republic for more than twelve months past, and which threaten'd a total overthrow of the established institutions of the country, prevented the memorial from being presented in accordance with the intentions of the October convention. That convention adopted many other memorials a.nd resolutions, amongst the most important of which was the provisional organiza- tion of the militia., as a precaution against contemplated attacks u~on our exposed frontier by the many tribes of hostile indians who in- habit the northern and western parts of Texas; and the establish- ment of the central and sub-committees of safety and correspond- ence throughout the country all of which-were rendered inoperative
1 Above, Ayunuimlcnto of Snn Felipe de Austin to the Federnl Government. • For a copy see Fillsola, Memorlas para la Historia de la Guerra de Texns, I, 273- 293 •
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