116
THE AUSTIN PAPERS
although unauthorized, in the name of the Labacca and Navidad Precinct, to welcome you once more to the soil, which, through your instrumentality you have procured for thousands of families, who otherwise could never have possessed a foot. To do this you have poineered an uninhabited country, suffering e\'ery privation; and when hope cast its dawning gleams upon the object of your labours and your cares, you have been made to suffer the cruelties of the envious and unrelenting Spaniard. You have raised a monument as imperishable. as time;-and babes yet unborn will lisp the name of Austin
AUSTIN TO THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS 1
SPEECH OF COLONEL AUSTIN
Delivered on the 8 th. of September, 1835, at a public dinner in Brazoria, given in honor of his return to Texas.
I cannot refrain from returning my unfeigned thanks for the flattering sentiments with which I have just been honored, nor have I words to express my satisfaction on returning to this my more than native country, and meeting so many of my friends and companions in its settlement. I left Texas in April, 1833, as the public agent of the people, for the _p:urpose of applying for the admission of this country into the Mexican confederation as a state separate from Coahuila. This application was based upon the constitutional and vested rights of _Texas, and was sustained by me in the city of Mexico to the utmost of my abilities. No honorable means were sparea to eff~ct the objects of my mission and to oppose the forming of Texas into a territory, which was attempted. I rigidly adhered to the instructions an~ wishes of my constituents, so far as they were com- municated to me. My efforts to serve Texas involved me in the Jabyrinth of Mexican politics. I was arrested, and have suffered a long persecution and imprisonment. I consider it my duty to give an account of these events to my constituents, and will therefore at this time merely observe that I have never, in any manner, agreed to any thing, or admitted any thing, that would compromise the constitutional or vested rights of Texas. These rights belong to the people, and-can only be surrendered by them. I fully hoped to have found Texas at peace and in tranquility, but regret to find it in commotion; all disorganized, all in anarchy, and threatened with immediate hostilities. This state of things is deeply to be lamented; it is a great misfortune, but it is one which has not been produced by any acts of the people of this country: on the contrary, it is the natural and
1 From a clippin111: of the TeleRraph and Tex~ ReRister.
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