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THE AUSTIN PAPERS
8nd watchful government that applies cheap and prompt preventive;; before- hand, in preference to the expenditure of millions for remedies, after an evil has occurred? But you ask, What prevent.ive can be applied? The answer is plain-Let an army of the United States march into Texas, and say to the pirate Santa Anna, "Stop:" a great and philanthropic and free people will not stand tamely by and see justice, constitutional right, and humanity, wantonly violated at her door-nor can a paternal government tolerate a state of things on its most vulnerable and important frontier, that will, and must bring the bloody tide of savage war and the horrors of negro insurrection within its limits. • It is madness and folly-it is deceiving yourselves and your constituents to believe that the Texas war is not a war of extermination against Anglo- Americans and their principles and interests. The republican party in Mexico are now subdued and crushed: they, by their own acts and mis- placed confi.dence in Santa Anna, have put the sword into his hands to cut their own throats. ·He has acquired all his power by deceiving the federal republican party of Mexico, and by making blind instruments of them. He is now continuing the same policy, for he has united all the influence and raources of that party against Texas. He and the monarchial party now in power, who have overturned the federal constitution of 1824•, know ,•ery well that to expect any thing like tranquility, or even comparative security in the enjoyment of their usurpations, they must keep out Anglo-American repub- licanism, and stop the moral invasion that was spreading over the eastern and internal states (now military provinces) of Mexico. How is this to be done? By exterminating the American population in Texas, and filling that country with Indians and negroes, who (as he thinks) will form an impene- trable barrier from the Sabine river to the Rio del Norte, and thus restore the old Spanish policy, which was "to prevent even a bird from crossing ihe Sabine river if possible." And the United Stales Government are to stand by with its hands folded, over scmples about interposing in the holy cause of humanity, philanthropy, of liberty, and of protection to its own exposed frontier! Oh! I cannot-do not-will not believe it. Of one thing / am certain, the people, the freemen of this nation, will not permit, nor will they tolerate the barbarities and usurpations of a Mexican tyrant. No-they will obey the dictates of their hearts, and fly to the rescue of their countrymen and of free principles. They will, of their own accord, save the bulwark of the whole Southwestern frontier, and Arkansas from the greatest peril that has ever threatened any portion of the United States territory since it became a nation. I do not mean the peril of Mexican invasion-it would be an insult to the people of the United States to call that a peril-- I mean the peril of an Indian and
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